


Name is Subject to Change

by GimmeDatElephant



Series: Unnamed Collection for Unnamed Works [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alyan's oblivious, Copious amounts of swears, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Kakashi's got a crush, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Someone draw me some fanart plox xc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-27 14:08:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 28,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6287653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GimmeDatElephant/pseuds/GimmeDatElephant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonin Alyan is taking on his first team. As such, he gets pick of the litter. Iruka-sensei thinks he's too immature to take on the responsibility of looking after 3 genin, but the Hokage's orders are the Hokage's orders, and Iruka-sensei's worries are dismissed. Especially since Alyan is taking the 3 most troublesome genin off his hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Untitled Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is being cross-posted from Wattpad to here.
> 
> If I'm not updating here fast enough, this is on Wattpad under the same name, or leave me a comment asking for the next chapter. Please do so politely :-)

"I've heard about enough from you, Iruka." An old man yelled while sitting behind his desk. He had wrinkles along his face, a dark-ish tan from all his years as a ninja himself in his younger days, and wore a long white robe and matching hat with a partial veil going down the back. He stood up and said, "You know that normally I trust your judgment, when it comes to matters such as these, but I think he needs to learn responsibility! He was so reckless when he was a lad, he almost got his entire team killed on more than one occasion!"

The brunet with the scar across his nose he was speaking to stood up from his sitting position in front of the old man and yelled, "And what makes you think he won't get these children killed? It's like you said, he's irresponsible! He's a hazard, and he-"

"And he what?" The older man cut him off. "And he's a very good ninja. He's very good at what he does. He wants to be an ANBU, you know. And to be an ANBU, he has to cooperate with another ANBU. If he's reckless and irresponsible with this team, then he can't be an ANBU." The brunet thought about it for a while before signing and nodding his assent. "If you're really so uncomfortable," the older man continued, "I can assign another jonin to the team, just to make sure none of the children won't be killed."

The brunet, Iruka, thought a while longer before he shook his head and said "No, no. If there's another jonin on the team, he won't learn to be cooperative. I agree. He needs this, but I don't want to see any of the children get hurt."

The older man chuckled. Then he spoke, "I understand your concerns, but he might surprise you."

A knock rang through the quiet room before someone spoke from the other side. "Hokage-sama, Alyan is here."

"Alright, send him in. And don't worry so much, Iruka." The Hokage said before the door opened and in stepped a tall man with shoulder length pure white hair and green, green eyes.


	2. Untitled Part 2

The young man with the pure white hair and green eyes scanned the room quickly before deeming it safe to enter. As he did so, the Hokage assessed him for any life-threatening injuries, looking over his black, leather clad, form fitting suit, and black leather clad hands, before finally settling on his face and, finding no injuries that needed attention immediately, he stood up and smiled a broad smile before loudly saying, "Alyan! I'm so glad you could join us! I assumed you were still out on your latest mission!" Before walking over and giving the young man, Alyan, a harsh pat on the back. "How was that mission, by the way?"

Alyan looked sheepish, before rubbing the back of his neck and cringing. "Eh, well. It could have gone better. But then again, it was ranked higher than the last few, I got a little cocky. Plus I wasn't expecting that ambush." Alyan shrugged before noticing the looks he was getting from his previous sensei and Hokage. "But then again, ambushes aren't really supposed to be expected, right?" He chuckled quietly, but when no one joined in, he covered it up with a cough and looked away.

The Hokage patted his back again before lightly pushing him toward the vacant chair in front of his large desk. Alyan took the hint and sat quickly and quietly, waiting for further instruction. "Now, Alyan. Do you remember the conversation we had before you left about you becoming ANBU?" The Hokage started.

"Yes, sir, I do. You said no because I'm still a kid or some bullshit like that." Alyan said before leaning back and crossing his arms. "You act like I'm a child, but I'm not. In case you've forgotten, Itachi and I are the same age! Why did you let him become ANBU at 13, but you won't let me? He killed his entire clan, in case you've forgotten. The most I've done is self-preservation. And you can't get too mad about that!"

"I'm not," the Hokage took his seat behind the desk. "You know I'm not. But that's besides the point. The reason why I previously said no-"

"Wait, you're saying yes now?!" Alyan stood up, hopeful.

The Hokage gave him "the look" before Alyan sat down quietly. "I previously said no," the Hokage continued, "because you were reckless. You still are, mind, but Iruka and I have come to a conclusion. You'll be assigned your first genin team, if you choose, and you'll be expected to keep all three of them safe - well, safe enough - from harm. I'll allow you to choose the three you want, normally the teams are assigned to you, but I'll make an exception this one time."

Alyan sat there for a minute, thinking, before he spoke up. "So you mean that I can pick my own genin team, and all I have to do to is keep them reasonably safe? And I can be an ANBU? What's the catch?"

The Hokage chuckled before saying, "I was just about to get to that. If any of these children come back from any mission with life-threatening wounds that are the result of your negligence, you will be removed from the ninja roster permanently. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you accept these terms?"

Alyan thought for a long while. If he accepts, and these kids get seriously wounded due to his negligence, he'll never be a ninja again.

"I do."


	3. Chapter 3

"Alright, class." Iruka started. "We have a very important guest coming today. He's a jonin, and he'll be assigned his first team today."

"Why is it only today he gets his first team?" A girl with long blonde hair and purple eyes asked.

"Well, he's not very responsible, he's brash, and he needs to learn how to be cooperative. That's where any of you three come in!" Iruka began.

A rather heavy set male student with brown hair sticking up in all directions cut him off with a loud snort and a "So we're going to be guinea pigs?"

"Well, 3 of you, yes, Choji. And he gets to pick. But think of this as a learning experience, not only will you be automatically genin, if you're chosen, but you won't have to pass the final exam!" Only some of the students cheered, and even then it was only half hearted. "Anyway, he should be here any minute to pick his team. If there's anything you want to know about him, within reason, just ask. If not, continue as you were.

**Outside the Door**

"My first, and only, team before I become an ANBU, this is so exciting!!" Alyan bounced in excitement. 

He stopped and fixed his hair a bit, "Can't let it show, though. Gotta play it cool, be the fucking awesome sensei every kid would want... Alright, here goes!" Alyan told himself quietly before knocking on the door.

**Inside the Room**

All of the students asked their questions, some of the girls wanting to know if he was cute, when minutes later, a knock sounded at the door, announcing Alyan's arrival. Soon after, the door opened and green eyes scanned the room quickly before he entered.

"Ah, kids, this is Alyan. He'll be the leader of the team and will be responsible for any and all injuries any of you on the team suffer. Alyan, this is my class, you may pick any of these students to join your team."

"Thank you, Iruka." Alyan replied politely. He turned his attention to the rest of the class and noticed the indiscreet looks he was getting from the entire class.

'Well,' he thought, 'it is an unusual sight, seeing someone with white hair who enjoys his leather.'

"Alright, midgets," Alyan began speaking again. "I think its time we took this party outside, shall we?" When none of the students moved, Alyan grew annoyed. "Alright, I think you all should do as I say."

"And why should we, huh?!" A loud mouth blond male screamed from about the middle of the room. "Iruka-sensei said that you were reckless!"

"And I am. I'm very reckless, which is why I'm picking you." Alyan said sweetly.

"What?!" He screamed, going a nice shade of 'horrified white' .

"You heard me. Now, as for the rest of you," he says, turning to address the rest of the class. "I expect you to join me on the training fields. I'll assess you there and pick the remaining two." He finished before leaving.

"Um, Iruka-sensei? He wasn't serious, was he?" A shy girl with short black hair, light grey eyes and a tan jacket asked.

"I'm not sure, but in any case, we should all probably head to the training grounds."

The students got up, one by one and shuffled to the door, daunted by the thought of becoming a victim to the irresponsible jonin.


	4. Untitled Part 4

As the kids entered the field, four kunai suddenly sunk into the ground in front of them and several more hit the wall around the doors, barely missing the heavyset boys toes and one of the girls heads.

Alyan jumped down from the roof and said, "Do any of you know why I threw kunai at you?" Everyone made a big fuss, but no one answered. "Since none of you know, I'll explain it this one time; I threw kunai at you because none of you looked around to see if it was safe. Rule number 1, always, always look before entering or exiting a building! Now, run laps. Twenty in ten minutes. Chop, chop!"

The kids looked bewildered, but eventually consented and started their laps.

Iruka walked over to Alyan and started up a conversation. "Alyan, don't you think you're being a bit harsh with them? I mean, they're only eleven. Maybe you should ease up a bit? The way you're treating them is a bit worrisome."

Alyan gave Iruka a flat look before saying sarcastically, "Maybe I should. Maybe I should be so easy with them that they're going to be killed on their first real mission. Mm, yeah. That sounds good. Blondie, the other two and I will all be killed on our first real mission because I don't want to make you worry that I'm being too harsh..." Alyan pouted and fluttered his eyelashes before he straightened out his face. "No, Iruka. They need harshness. What if they were on a real mission and some rogue ninja decided to pull the same shit I did? That rogue ninja wouldn't have missed. Those kids would be dead, and this is a good learning experience. Now, while they're with me, they'll learn to look before going through a doorway."

Iruka looked unsure, but eventually sighed. "You're right," he said. "You're right, Alyan. They need this. But I just don't want them to get hurt. Not when they're still in training, you know. Remember, Alyan, you were different. You and Itachi trained together all the time, pushing each other to the extreme. These kids are not you and Itachi."

Alyan thought about it for a while before nodding. "Alright. I'll be hard on them now, and be a little easier on them later." Iruka smiled and nodded. "Five more laps, midgets! Blondie Boy, what are you doing? You're already on my team, get your ass over here!"

Blondie hurried over and stopped next to Alyan, breathing hard. Alyan patted him on the back briefly before he crossed his arms and continued to watch the others run their laps.

When they were finished, Alyan ushered them over to the kunai and shuriken range. "Now that you've warmed up, I want each and every one of you to split into five groups, one for every target, and throw five kunai and ten shuriken at the targets. When you're done, go over to the targets and get your kunai and shuriken and go to the end of the line. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir..." The kids replied weakly while some didn't even bother as they started to form their lines.

Alyan suddenly threw another kunai at each of the targets. The kids looked at him startled as each flew passed someone's ear. "I said, am I clear?"

"Yes, sir!" They shouted un unison.

"Good, as you were." Alyan grabbed his kunai before stepping away to watch.

Each of the kids took their turns shooting off one kunai and shuriken at a time before they finished and took their place at the end if the line. Once each of the kids finished and the lines returned to the original line, Alyan said, "Alright, midgets, keep going. You're nervous now, but if you keep going for as long as I want, you'll get annoyed with me and start picturing my face in the center. That's exactly what I want. So keep going! Lets go, lets go!!" Alyan clapped a couple times to get them to start going.

A long while passed, and each of the kids started getting frustrated with Alyan, they had, after all, been working on throwing sharp objects at a target for a few hours! The sun was going down! Thus far, only a few students showed the proper amount of endurance, as far as throwing things went.

A pink haired student was dripping sweat when she threw her last shuriken at the target when Alyan suddenly yelled, "That's enough, midgets! Pink haired girl, with the red... Thing, you're on my team! Get over here!"

She hurried over, standing with the blond boy, when he congratulated her. She gave him a look before thanking him more harshly than she should have. Alyan raised a brow at the interaction, but didn't comment.

She turned to Alyan and asked, "Why'd you pick me, sensei?"

Alyan shrugged and said, "I guess it's because I like pink, or kids with large foreheads, who knows?"

She gaped and huffed, but otherwise said nothing... Minus a few garbled words.

He turned to the waiting students before telling them to line up in front of them. "Ok, short stacks, I have one final thing for you to do. Earlier today, while you were running your laps, I hid something. I need you to find it. The one who does, gets to be the final member of my team. And if that's not reward enough, ya'll are crazy, and I'm glad I didn't pick you. Now, off you go!"

A girl with long, light blonde hair in a pony tail raised her hand before saying, "But how are we supposed to find it? It's dark out!"

"Exactly!" Alyan said. "You're supposed to use those ninja skills you've acquired through the years and find it. Quickly, too. I become very throw-y at night. And by throw-y, I mean I throw things at people. By things, I mean kunai, and by people, I mean you. Now go! Find me that thing!" The kids all groaned amd started looking quickly. All but one, though. A shorter version of Itachi, minus the laugh lines. "What's up with you, shorty. Don't want to find me that thing?"

"No," he said grumpily. "You didn't hide anything while we were running those laps."

"Oh," Alyan said. "And how do you know?"

"Because you were talking to Iruka-sensei the whole time."

Alyan smiled before saying, "Good job, spike! Congratulations, you're on my team!"


	5. Chapter 5

As the other kids left for home, Alyan turned to his new team and said, "Alright, kiddies. Since you're my new team, and we haven't been properly acquainted, I suggest we all meet up on the school rooftop tomorrow, around noon. Sound good?"

Alyan looked around at his team.

They nodded and walked home. As they left through the gate, Alyan swept his green eyes across the training grounds before letting himself fall to the ground, ass first. He was absolutely exhausted from the days events, even though he did nothing.

'Dammit,' he thought. 'Why does this shit have to happen to me?' His chest suddenly erupted in pain, starting from the center of his chest and blooming outward. He clutched a hand to his chest and gritted his teeth, knowing the pain would stop soon.

"Argh, dammit!! You're a fucking bitch, you know that?!" He shouted, still clutching his chest. He started to will the pain away, and soon enough, the pain dissipated.

THE NEXT DAY

Just as planned, the four of them met on the roof of the school. The pink haired girl sat closely to Spike while Blondie sat further away. Alyan stood in front of them and raised a brow, but still didn't comment. He started zoning out, thinking about how to go about telling three eleven year olds something personal to get them to open up because seriously? How could he expect them to open up if he can't? As he was zoned, Blondie asked what they were going to do to help them get to know each other.

They waited quietly for a few minutes before the pink haired girl asked, "Um, sensei? Did you hear Naruto?"

"Hm?" Alyan was suddenly brought back to himself. "No, I did not hear. You might want to repeat that."

Blondie huffed, annoyed, before shouting his question, "I said, what are we going to do to get to know each other?!"

"Thank you for yelling, I don't think I could have heard you if you hadn't." Alyan said equally annoyed. "Well, first off, tell me about yourselves."

"Well, what are we supposed to say?" The pink haired girl asked. "Why don't you go first and show us how its done?"

"Mm, see, I would like to, but I'm currently editing what i would like to tell you. So just start off with your name, hobbies, likes, dislikes, whatever, you know? That kind of stuff? Pink, you go first."

Sakura thought about it for a few seconds before nodding and saying, "Well, my name is Sakura Haruno, my hobbies are, um" she snuck a look at Spike before continuing "my likes are..." She snuck another look at Spike who just rolled his eyes. "My dislikes are dogs, dust, doing the dishes, dirt-"

Alyan cut her off, "So 'D' words?"

She blushed and whispered, "Yeah..." Before she cleared her throat and continued, "My favorite color is-"

"Holy crap!" Alyan interrupted her again. "You don't have to go so in-depth, we get it!... I'm guessing pink? Red?"

She shook her head and said, "No, I like green."

Alyan looked surprised and nodded. "Alright then. Next, Spike. Name, hobbies, likes, dislikes, go!"

Spike sighed before saying, "Sasuke Uchiha, training, nothing, and my brother."

Alyan blinked a couple times, processing the information before he smirked and said "Wait, wait. Who's your brother, exactly? Its not Itachi, is it? Because I seem to remember a cute little four year old Sasu-Chan that wanted to marry me when he got older..."

Blondie burst into laughter while Sakura looked vaguely horrified. Alyan joined in with Blondie's laughter, though not quite as loudly.

At Sasuke's embarrassed, red face, Alyan said, "Alright, that's enough. Blondie, knock it off. It's your turn. Name, hobbies, likes and dislikes. Go!"

Naruto flashed a cheesy grin before yelling, "My names Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be the next Hokage, believe it!!"

Alyan smiled before saying, "Of course you are. Now its my turn, I guess." Alyan took a deep breath in before slowly exhaling. "Ok, my name is Alyan, my hobbies are trying not to die, my likes are..." He glanced around the roof before pointing to Naruto. "I like orange. I like it a bit more than pink. When I was a kid, my hair was orange. And I had blue eyes. Then a thing happened, I died, and a nasty, white mama demon was sealed in my lungs, heart and throat, and now I have white hair, green eyes, and am alive again. By the way, if you smell anything funky, it's probably me because I'm kinda very slowly decaying. Oh, dislikes! Almost forgot. My dislikes are the aforementioned demon, and she knows it. I've decided to name her. She is 'That Bitch'. Any questions?"

(*This is where you comment your questions so Alyan can address them in the next chapter. You have approximately one week before the next chapter is put up. Have fun, be creative, and ask ANYTHING*)


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto raised his hand and asked, "Sensei, you mentioned that you died? How'd that happen?"

Alyan looked at him blankly before his face turned an ugly shade of embarrassed. He coughed, crossed his arms said, "I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't die...!"

"Sensei, Naruto's right. You did say that you died. You also said that you were decaying?" Sakura said, looking slightly green.

Alyan gave it a couple moments, tapping his finger on his arm, before he sighed. "Ok, ok. You got me. I died."

"How?" Sakura asked.

Alyan pursed his lips before mumbling, "I felloutofatree."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"I said, I felloutofatree."

"One more time?" Sakura said gently.

"I said, I fell out of a tree, ok?! It wasn't even a tall tree either, more like a large bush. Either way, I fell out of the tree-bush, broke my neck, and died." Alyan said, flushing harshly.

The three were silent for a couple seconds before Naruto's obnoxious laughter filled the air. Sakura wasn't quite as bad, but she still giggled. Alyan's face turned even redder, and he pouted. He let the laughter continue for a few minutes before he cleared his throat. When they settled down from their laughing fits, he continued, "That's enough! So I died a stupid death. So it was an E ranked mission, and we had to catch someone's semi-feral, pregnant cat. So I was so excited that I almost pissed myself in anticipation, fell out of the tree-bush, broke my neck, and died. So what? It's been a few years, I think we can move on. What do you say?"

Naruto started laughing even harder, saying through bouts of laughter, "You... You peed yourself! Hahaha!! I can't believe it!!"

"And you shouldn't!" Alyan said outraged. "I said I almost pissed myself! I didn't, though. So lets move on!

Other things were said and done, much laughter ensued, Naruto was hit in the face a couple of times for bringing up the "almost peed" incident, and the day ended pleasantly.

*(Wow, was that a half-assed ending to the chapter! But seriously, I didn't know how to end it, so there we are. The next chapter will go up in about the same amount of time, give or take a couple.)*


	7. Chapter 7

Alyan decided to walk the children home after the day was done. First was Sasuke, as Sakura insisted that she lived a bit further down the road, but as Sasuke entered the empty house, she suddenly remembered that she lived "back that way, a bit... Ah ha ha ha?" Alyan, sighed, smiled a bit, rolled his eyes dramatically before chuckling a bit, said, "Alright, kiddies. Next is you, girly. Lets head out."

She sighed, before nodding. She took the lead, allowing Naruto and Alyan to follow her. Alyan took the chance to look around as she lived a bit further than "back that way, a bit". It was more like, "across the city back that way, a bit". But Alyan didn't comment, he just kept looking around, not having the chance to do so since after Itachi left. Naruto was fidgeting a bit, but nothing too extreme to warrant immediate action.

As Sakura stepped up the steps to her front door, she turned a bit to wave bumye to her new sensei and, Alyan assumed, to Naruto as well. "See you tomorrow, sensei! Naruto..."

"Yeah, yeah. See you, Sakura." Naruto said quietly, seeming a bit distracted. Now that was off. From what Alyan had seen that day, Naruto had a crush on her and wasn't like that around her. This calls for immediate action.

"Sure, Sakura." Alyan said as he steered Naruto off in the general direction of his, Naruto's, home. "We'll see you tomorrow."

As the two of them started towards Naruto's house, Naruto tried to make conversation between them... Needless to say, in his current state, it didn't go over too well.

"Naruto." Alyan said after the second failed attempt. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"N-no!! Why would I want to tell you something?!" He yelled and threw his hands behind his head.

"Well, for one thing, you're lousy at small talk now when you were just fine on the roof, and second, you stuttered. People don't do that unless there's something on their mind. Now tell me, what's up?"

Naruto kept walking quietly for a while before he sighed a heavy sigh. "Yeah, there is something I want to tell you. But not here." They stayed quiet until they got to Naruto's home. As they approached the door, Naruto unlocked it before opening the door and stepping aside. He motioned for Alyan to come in before mumbling the same thing.

Alyan did as told, striding inside quickly. Naruto came in soon after, closing the door behind him. Alyan took in the sight of Naruto's messy home before turning his gaze to his teammate. Naruto shuffled around a bit before gesturing to the couch. Alyan raised a brow and sat, Naruto joining him shortly.

"So?" Alyan prompted.

"Gimme a minute." Naruto breathed in and out a couple times before saying, "You know about... My demon, right? And about how everyone treats me? Its just so... Good to know that there's someone else out there like that, you know? Now, I finally have someone to talk to about it!"

"Well, yeah. That was pretty big news. Sorry I couldn't stick around for long, the village had the same thoughts about me as they do about you. I left for months at a time and only came back to get paid and get a new assignment. But don't worry, I'm here now, and I'll always be here for my team, no matter what." Alyan relaxed back onto the couch.

"Yeah, I get it. If I could have left earlier..." He paused.

"You would've done the same?" Alyan finished.

"No." He said after a while. "I would've stayed, regardless. Konoha is my home, and I don't think I'll leave it for too long, no matter what happens. You know why?"

"Because you're an adorable blond ninja with an irritatingly loud mouth and terrible sense of fashion?" Alyan smiled a bit.

"Ha! No! Because I'm gonna be Hokage some day!! And anyway, you're one to talk! Who wears a full suit of black leather?!"

"Only the best, of course!" Alyan winked dramatically.

The two of them shared a laugh for a while before conversation went back to normal. As Alyan was relaying a somewhat funny story about Itachi and puberty, his lungs started to burn, signaling the return of That Bitch. Alyan coughed a bit, trying to get her to GO AWAY, he was a little busy at the moment! But in the middle of making an awful rendition of Itachi's voice cracking in the middle of sentences, That Bitch cut off his air intake, and made him start to suffocate.

In front of Naruto.

Naruto, who was already damaged because of his demon and close-minded people.

Alyan tried hitting his chest a couple times, trying to dislodge That Bitch from his throat, but failed. He heard Naruto ask if he was ok before he said that he was going to get Alyan something to drink and left the room. A dull thud sounded from the living room.

When Naruto came back in, glass of water in hand, Alyan was passed out on the floor, on his side in an uncomfortable looking position, breathing steadily.

Naruto almost dropped his glass before he turned quickly and set it on the island behind him. "Sensei?" He asked. "Sensei?!" Naruto dropped to his knees and shook his sensei, trying to get him to wake up. When that failed, he looked around before spotting the water, getting up briefly, grabbing it and dipping his fingers in before flicking his now wet fingers and lightly spraying water on his sensei's face. When that didn't work, he started to panic a bit before noticing that he was breathing. Naruto calmed down slightly before sitting down on the couch and waiting until his sensei wake up.


	8. Untitled Part 8

Deep inside Alyan's mind, he and That Bitch were having an argument about why That Bitch would do such a thing.

"What the absolute _**fuck**_ is wrong with you?! You almost killed me!" Alyan yelled at her.

That Bitch laughed and said, "Darling boy, I would never kill you, if I did, I would die too. And I don't want that very much. I just didn't appreciate you speaking of that lovely body how you were."

Alyan looked incredulous. " 'Lovely body'? You've never even met the guy! How do you know he has a lovely body?!"

"It would seem you forget that I can hear your thoughts and see your fantasies. Very interesting, by the way. I had no idea you felt that way about your childhood friend." She said, looking bored.

Alyan blushed, and his eyes widened. "You know what? Fuck you. I'm done, good bye."

**In Naruto's Room**

Naruto sat impatiently on the couch, waiting for his sensei to wake up. Every second felt like a minute and every minute felt like an hour. Soon enough, Naruto heard a soft groan coming from the ground. Naruto jumped to his feet and fell to the ground beside him.

"Sensei?" He said. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"That Bitch..." He whispered. "Can hear my thoughts can she...? Well hear this...!"

"Uhh... Sensei?"

"Hmm?" Alyan hummed and looked over to him. "Oh, right. You're here. Ehehe... Oops."

"What were you saying, sensei?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just talking to myself like a sane person!" Alyan laughed awkwardly, shaking his hand back and forth in front of him.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked slowly.

"Yeah, yeah. Totally fine. Well, I better be off if I want to get up and meet you guys somewhere, I don't know where just yet, and I didn't tell any of you where we should meet, but I hope you all meet me by the school so we can go do some training together, but if not I guess we can go look for the others and I'm rambling which means I really need to go... Like right now. I'll see you tomorrow!!" Alyan said quickly, showing himself to the door and left just as fast. 

"Well that was weird." Naruto said to no one.

**In Alyan's house**

As soon as Alyan got home, he sighed heavily, wordlessly expressing his opinion of the day.

'Well,' he thought, 'Might as well get some rest. Maybe bathe?... Ehhhh no. I think I'm good.' 

Alyan carefully removed his gloves, pulling on one finger at a time before removing them completely, then he takes the top of his zipper in hand and pulls it down, revealing pale, slightly scarred skin. As he pulled his arms carefully out of the sleeves, Alyan noticed that he probably should wash his leathers... And bathe.

With his leathers down to his waist and arms free, Alyan made his way to the bathroom. He turned the taps to fill the bathtub, and removed his leathers the rest of the way, boots first.

After his rather boring bath, Alyan wrapped a towel around his waist, grabbed his smelly laundry, and made his way to his room.

Alyan opened his bedroom door, opened the window, and set his leathers out to air out next to it.

He turned around and noted that it was dusty everywhere.

"Maybe the first thing we do as a team is clean my house." He cracked a smile. "How great would that be? Strong, sarcastic sensei makes them clean his house...! Yup, that's what we're doing; tomorrow's mission: clean my house."

...

"But first I need to wash my sheets, they're kinda gross."

**Later that Same night**

Alyan couldn't sleep. He had scrubbed his entire room, top to bottom, and wore himself out.

But he couldn't sleep.

So he got up, made a list of everything that had to be done, and did most of it himself. Then he ended up doing the rest of it because he still couldn't sleep. It was tines like these that he blamed That Bitch for his insomnia even though he knew she had no hold over his sleep. But he could do it anyway, it wasn't like she could stop him, hehe.

"Fuck this!" He said after a few hours of lying in bed. "I'm just gonna go wait for them at the school!"

Alyan went to the closet, and grabbed a clean leather suit before carefully sliding it on.

'Shit, it's so hard to put cold leathers on. They're so stiff! I should really go to bed in them, make it easier in the morning.' Alyan took a look outside. 'But shit, the sun isn't even up.' He tugged on his boots, and stood up.

After giving himself a once over in the mirror, Alyan made a mental checklist of everything he needed to have on before leaving the residence, his utility belt, restocked on weapons, wire and healing agents, being one of them.

'Ehhh, I'll pack it in a bit. Right now my hair and teeth need to be brushed.'

Making his way back to the bathroom, Alyan grabbed his toothbrush, wet it, and put toothpaste on it, you know. Usual stuff.

After his teeth were clean, Alyan grabbed his hairbrush and ran it through his mostly untangled hair, going this way and that, before pulling it back entirely, toying with the idea of up, down, or not at all. After deciding on 'not at all', Alyan grabbed a comb and parted it to the side, above his left eye, in his usual style.

"Time to pack my bag, I guess." Alyan said aloud before doing just that.

He checked his weapons for sharpness, deeming some of them too dull before he sharpened them to perfection and put them away. He gauged his wire, checking whether it would be enough before deciding, 'Yeah, that's good. Not gonna be needing it for a while,' and tossed it in the bag as well.

Finally he checked his healing agents, making sure he had plenty. Since he was running low on a few, Alyan decided that their first trip would be to the farmers market in town, so he could grab the necessary ingredients and show his team how to make certain things.

After taking a couple minutes to decide whether or not to bring it all or have them make it all, he decided that it wouldn't hurt to teach them how to make healing creams first. He grabbed all the empty containers for the creams as he had and tossed them into the bag.

Deeming himself ready for the day, Alyan strapped his belt on and left the house, not even bothering to lock the door.

"After all," he said to himself, "who would want to steal from me? I'll kick their ass!"


	9. Untitled Part 9

Alyan was leaning on the fence of the school, waiting for the kids to show up. He had been waiting there for a while, it was dark when he arrived, and the sun had risen a while ago. The rest of his team should arrive soon.

Alyan sighed hard before mumbling to himself, "I need to get a watch or something."

After several more minutes, Alyan leaned his head back and closed his eyes. 'Might as well rest my eyes a bit. Who knows when Naruto will show up, nor if he'll bring the others.'

After a while, Alyan heard his team running towards him.

When they all slowed to a stop in front of him, Alyan opened his eyes and focused his gaze on the three of them. "Fucking finally! Naruto," he turned to him, "I appreciate that you brought everyone here, but do any of you even know how long I was waiting here?"

"Well excuse me, sensei!! You never told them where to meet, so I had to get them for you!" Naruto yelled, clearly upset with the faux semi-joke.

"How long were you waiting here, sensei?" Sakura, ever the polite one, asked.

"I have no idea. All I know is that when I got here, after not being able to sleep again, it was dark. And after a long time, the sun came up." Alyan pointed toward the rock face formation. "Right over there. And it was nice. Anyway, there's a few things we need to do first."

"Like?" Sasuke asked.

Alyan gasped dramatically. "It speaks...! Liiike we have to go to the farmers market and get several different types of herbs, and four mortar and pestle sets."

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"I'm gonna teach you stuff. And after that, we're going to find a meeting place near enough to all of your homes so you should all arrive at about the same time. It doesn't matter when I get there because I'm always going to be earlier than any of you. That's just how it works, you know?"

"What kind of stuff are you going to be teaching us?" Sasuke asked.

Alyan stooped down to his level and covered Sasuke's mouth with his hand. "Shush!" He whispered. "You're going to ruin the surprise." Alyan quickly let go and chuckled a bit at Sasuke's offended look, before he stood up, wiped his hand on his leathers while making a small "Eww" sound, and said, "Alright, kiddies. Let's go get those things for the surprise and find someplace to meet at every day."

"Alright!!" Naruto yelled, pumping his fist in the air.

"Enthusiasm." Alyan nodded. "I like it."

As they started walking away from the school, Sakura was jabbering away about what she thought the surprise might be, asking what Sasuke thought the surprise might be. Naruto pitched an idea, (it was wrong) Sakura looked annoyed briefly, before continuing on with her soliloquy.

'Gonna have to talk to her about that later.' Alyan thought before he noticed something very strange in the middle of the road. It was a square shaped, box-like bush. He stopped walking, tilted his head, and let his face contort into one of open curiosity.

"What's wrong, sensei?" Sakura asked, peering around him.

Naruto and Sasuke did the same thing before Naruto huffed, annoyed and loudly, before declaring, "We can just ignore that box there, it's not important."

Alyan looked at him, painful curiosity and skepticism shining in his green eyes, but nodded nonetheless and continued onward, his team following suit.

The box continued to sit there, looking unimposing, not even twitching. Innocent as a spring breeze.

Alyan got maaaybe 13 and a half steps away before his curiosity over took him, and he turned around, making his way back to the box-bush... Except it wasn't there.

"... What the fuck?! Where's the box-bush?! It was right there!"

Naruto patted him on the shoulder. "It happens. Things come and go, and life moves on." He nodded wisely.

Alyan was speechless for quite some time. "I have no idea what's going on. Let's, let's just go do that surprise thing."

They continued their journey to the market to get all of the necessary equipment and ingredients for the surprise.

The farmers market was relatively small, compared to the actual shops, but regardless, it was well stocked on just about anything. Many of the vendors had a shade over their stall to protect their goods from the sun, while others needed the sun to show off their products and therefore only had an umbrella over themselves.

As they slowed to a stop in front of a stand full of herbs with a blue shade, the owner of the stand looked happy as always to see Alyan, his big spender, and grinned widely.

"Hey, Alyan!" The owner said. "The usual?"

"Sup, Mitch. Yeah, the usual. But can you quadruple it? And throw in a few mortar and pestle sets?"

"Sure, but why so many?"

"Uh." Alyan gestured to the genin. "I got a team now?" A slow, lazy grin spread across his face.

The shop owner broke out in an even larger grin before proudly saying, "Ahh shit! I owe the guy across the way $50!!"

They shared a few loud, hard laughs before quieting down into chuckles.

"Yeah, Nate. Nobody but that guy across the street thought I'd get a team. I owe him cash too, trust me. But enough of that for now, Drew!! I need all of my shit now so my team and I can do shit together!"

The ship owner laughed before setting up the supplies, throwing some onto scales and writing stuff down before he put it on a separate counter. After everything was totaled up, the shop owner turned to Alyan and gave him the total of $285 for the herbs, and $20 for the mortar and pestle sets. It was a costly grand total of...

"$305!!"

"Holy shit, big spender over here!! Ring the bell, my good sir!" Alyan said proudly.

"Ah, sorry Alyan. We don't have the bell anymore. The rope we had it on was pretty old, and it eventually broke, and the bell fell. We have it over there, if you wanna be weird and touch it like I know you do." He motioned in some direction.

Alyan looked sad before he said, "You know me so well, Gregg. Let me touch the bell."

The shop owner went behind the curtain in back and brought out the cracked bell. It was an ordinary rusted brass bell, nothing to write home about.

Alyan placed his hand on the bell, still looking sad, before he said quietly, "This was a nice bell. It will be missed." He then took his hand away before looking to the shop owner. "So now how are we going to let everyone know that someone spent big money over here, Bubbles?"

"Beats me, kid. You're going to have to get me a bell, I suppose."

"Say no more, my good man, Darlene. It shall be done... The second these guys and I go to another village."

Alyan paid for his purchase, grabbed his bag, handed each of the kids a mortar and pestle ("Be careful with those, I don't want to have to buy another, but I guess I can if I have to.") before he waved goodbye to the shop owner.

"So what was all of those weird names about?"

"Hmm? Oh I never learned his name. Right now I'm just saying words, hoping something sticks."


	10. Untitled Part 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *(So I know it's a bit late to ask this, but 50 points to your Hogwarts house to whoever guesses who Alyan's character is modeled after ;P I'll give you a hint: he's one of 4 antagonists in a movie about a video game, and people who weren't at least 10 years old, and avid video game players, before 1997-2005 probably wouldn't know)*
> 
> Trigger warning: excessive use of the 'f' word and other swearing. I'm only tagging this here because it's quite excessive. Like, I didn't even need that many f-bombs, but I dropped them all. Also, there will be talk about blood, so if you're not comfortable talking about it, or even reading about it, I'll put up a warning and then a brief summary of what was missed so everyone knows what happened.

Alyan was busy making a mental map of the town.

His students were around him, chattering away at each other.

"Hey, is there a field of some kind around here? I only know a few of the streets." Alyan asked.

"Hmm?" Sakura hummed. "Yeah, there are a few. It's between the Stadium and school."

"No, no, no, no. Not the kiddy one. Like a real, badass adulty one."

"The academy has it's own training ground. The only other training grounds are the clan grounds, and I'm sure no one wants to share." Sasuke very helpfully supplied.

"Yeah, thanks, kid. That was helpful. So we pretty much go back the way we came?"

"Yeah, training grounds are across the street from the school." Naruto said.

"Alright then."

Alyan turned around, the rest of his team following suit, when they encountered the box-bush.

Alyan held his arms out, stopping his team. "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura." He said quietly. "The box-bush. It's back. This time, I'm gonna see what it is."

Alyan walked over to the box silently and crouched quickly next to it. He touched it with a finger. It did nothing. So he decided it was safe to see what was under it, if there was anything under it at all.

Alyan carefully lifted the box up, and tossed it to the side, callously revealing....

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing under the box.

"Well that's a load of crap!" Naruto yelled.

"There's nothing under the box?! What the fuck even is this bullshit?!" Alyan yelled hysterically. "When you put a fucking box painted like a fucking bush in the middle of the fucking road, there better be a fucking thing under the fucking box!!! This is bullshit, I demand that whoever did this come out right now, so I can punch them in their ugly as fuck face!"

Alyan continued with his tangent, while Sakura looked bewildered, and Sasuke just looked uncomfortable with all the swearing.

"Ugh!" Alyan finally gave up on his tantrum. "What! Ever! I'm done with this bull, we have to find a place to meet."

They continued on their way, but not before Alyan kicked the box, and eventually made it to the training field. Alyan walked to the middle before turning around and pointing to three spaces in front if him. Sakura stood on his left, Sasuke in the middle, and Naruto on his right.

"So, we've got our herbs and mortar and pestle. Can you guess what that means?" Alyan looked around at his team.

"Oh my mom tried to teach me this!" Sakura shouted happily, raising her hand. "We're going to make an herb paste that can heal almost anything, right?"

"Yeah, good job, Sakura!" Alyan was proud. "We are going to be making a cure-all, but just the most basic until we go on our first mission that might have one of us get hurt. Cure-all's aren't what a field ninja has much use for. ***(Warning!Mentions of blood to follow)*** Most cure-all's don't treat burns or frostbite. In fact, cure-all's are pretty much just to keep infection at bay and stem blood flow in a pinch. It's never recommended to use a cure-all when you have the ability to use a treatment made specifically for your wound.

"Say you got a cut from multiple enemies on your arm. You get away, but you have just enough time to use a pre-made cure-all and wrap your wound before you have to make a choice: fight-or-flight. Do all of you understand what that means?"

Sasuke raised his hand and calmly explained, "Fight-or-flight means that you either stay and fight, and hopefully win, or get away as fast as you can and hope they lose your tail, or you get to either a village, town, or other friendly ninjas."

"Exactly. Good job, Sasuke. Remind me to give you a gold star sticker, I'm afraid I used my last one on a dog earlier this morning. If you choose to fight, you have to work very quickly to get the wound patched up as quickly as possible and make sure it doesn't bleed too much. If you fight, that means the cure-all is going to wear away much more quickly because of sweat and blood. If the enemy sees that you're injured, they will use that to their advantage, and will always attack the side you're injured on. You're weaker on that side. Unless you have a team, or it's your last resort, I, personally, would never choose fight before flight.

"If you choose flight, you have to work quickly to wrap the wound so that your blood doesn't leave a trail, leading them right to you. While you're fleeing, you can and should wrap the wound as best as you can, to stem the flow, and get away as fast as you can. Should the wound be too deep and not close, don't worry about it, keep going. The adrenaline pumping through your body will help keep the blood flow to a minimum, but you might leave a trail behind you. If you do, throw some zigzags in your path, use your bloody fingers to confuse your attackers."

"How?" Sakura interrupted.

"Get blood on your hands and wipe it on the tree or rock or something closest to you in such a way that it looks like you're going a different way. This won't always confuse your attacker, but it will buy you some more time. Do you understand?"

***(We're good now. To recap; Alyan basically explained that when the kids are attacked and injured, they should do everything in their power to get away before fighting.)***

"Yes, sensei!" They said in unison.

"Good. We'll get to the basics later, right now we get to crush plants. I'd suggest jotting down some notes until you can remember for yourself what is needed for what."

Alyan sat down and explained to the kids what each herb did, and what to put it with too make what. He grabbed a few of the same herb, stems and all, broke them into smaller pieces and threw them in his mortar. He explained what it was primarily used for (anti-inflammatory), what it was called, and how it was spelled.

"If this one isn't a nice deep green and crisp like this one, don't get it. It's likely either too old, or picked too soon. Next, we'll take this one..." Alyan grabbed another herb, more if it this time, and explained the same things like he did the last one.

He continued until he had the set in his mortar full before he ground them all together roughly, but thoroughly. Once the mixture was at the appropriate consistency, Alyan grabbed an empty tin and scooped the paste into it.

As Alyan closed the tin, he looked to his team and said, "Now you guys try."

His team copied what he had done, and Alyan watched closely. They each made a few mistakes, which Alyan easily explained to them what was wrong and how to fix it, and let them continue. After everything was at an acceptable level, Alyan handed each of them a tin and they put their mixture into the tins.

"That is a cure-all. Ninjas don't have much use for them, but they come in handy in a pinch, like I said earlier."

Alyan showed them how to properly clean and dry their mortar and pestle, simply clean water and a clean cloth, nothing else is required.

He showed them how to make several more before the day was done.

As they were sliding the last of their pastes in the tins and packed away in their bags, Alyan looked around, finally noticing that the sun was setting. "Well, it would seem that that's all for today. I'll see you kids tomorrow. Do you need me to walk you all home?"

"No thanks, sensei. I can get home just fine." Naruto said.

"Psshh. Ok then, you two?"

Sasuke shook his head, turned, and started walking home.

"Fine then, Mr. Grumpy Pants. I'll just walk Sakura home!"

"Actually sensei, I can get home just fine. My house is only a block away."

"Alright then. Go on home."

Naruto and Sakura both said their good nights and started walking home.

Alyan looked around, wondering what to do, 'I'm an adult, I can adult around for a while.' He thought to himself.

And then decided to just go home, maybe read a book or something.


	11. Untitled Part 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *(I'll tell you guys next chapter who Alyan is modeled after, you have until then to guess in the comments! Here is the hint again: he's one of 4 main antagonists (baddies) in a movie that came out in 2005. Here's another hint: a very popular video game with the same title as the movie was recently announced to be remastered. I wonder who can guess :) )*

**Later that same evening**  
  
Alyan was walking home, wondering if there was anything to do while he was there. He had already cleaned the entire place. Maybe he could just wash all of the dishes.

'Dishes? I don't like doing dishes though. It's too much work to just, put them in the water, rub them with a soapy sponge until they're clean, rinse them off, and dry them... Well, if there's nothing to do.'

Suddenly someone bumped into him from behind. Alyan turned to them and was about to apologize for walking too slowly, when he saw who it was.

"Kakashi? Is that you?" Alyan asked excitedly.

Kakashi smiled through his mask "Yeah, it is me! But wow have you changed since I last saw you!"

"You know, I was juuuust about to apologize for walking too slow, but now that I know it's you, I should just tell you off." Alyan said, smiling a bit.

"Oh ha ha." Kakashi sarcastically replied. "Anyway, what are you doing here? You usually don't stay in town for very long."

"Oh yeah, the news hasn't spread yet. I've got a genin team now!"

"Those poor little suckers."

Alyan's jaw dropped in shock, and he smacked Kakashi on the arm. "You jerk! They're not suckers, they're my team! And anyone would be proud to be my student!"

"I don't mean any offense, but are they proud?"

"Well, not yet, but they will be. Just you wait!" Alyan smiled a bright toothy smile, putting his hands on his hips and striking a "proud" pose.

Kakashi laughed. They continued walking towards Alyan's house, chatting amicably.

When they reached the door, Alyan stopped and turned to Kakashi. "You know," he started. "I've got a bone to pick with you."

"Right, I was supposed to watch your place and keep it clean. I can explain." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head.

There was a long pause.

"I'm waiting." Alyan said, crossing his arms.

"I was hoping you'd say that you didn't want to hear any excuses."

Alyan sighed with a smile on his face. "At least try." Alyan opened the door and stepped inside.

Kakashi followed, closing the door behind him. "Well you see, every morning, I tell myself that I have to go to your place and make sure no one did anything untoward to you or your magnificent home. And every day, I'm drawn away from your house to take care of some kind of business that just doesn't seem to end. And by the time I'm done, it's too late to do anything else but sleep."

Alyan laughed loudly. "OK, OK. I believe you." He sat on the couch and patted the cushion next to him.

"Really?" Kakashi took the offer and sat, one leg under the other.

"Yeah, you forgot, how can I be mad at you for that?"

"I forget everything if it doesn't pertain to me. I almost forgot about you, actually."

Alyan smacked his arm again.

They talked until the wee hours of the morning on the couch, getting more and more comfortable with each other the more they spoke, before they both fell asleep on top of each other.

**The next day**

The team met in the same place they did the day before.

"OK, so funny story." Alyan began. "I didn't prepare anything for today. I hardly got any sleep last night, a friend and I were talking most of the night, and I kinda just want to take a nap. We did the thing with crushing stuff and making a medicinal paste yesterday, so I guess meeting adjourned?" Alyan shrugged.

"Uh, sensei?" Sakura raised her hand. "Can't you just think of anything for us to do?"

"Not off hand. But I'm sure if we just, like..." Alyan sat. "Sit down, I'll think of something. It'll be great, you just wait."

They looked at each other and sat like their sensei said. They sat in moderate silence before Alyan snapped his fingers.

"Why don't we meditate for a while?"

"Why?" Sasuke asked.

"Consider it a trust exercise. Trust that I won't put a kunai in your chest. Trust that I won't play little tricks on you should you fall asleep. Trust exercise!" Alyan smiled and threw his hands up in the air.

"Yeah, I-I guess we can do that." Sakura said, looking uncertain.

"Alright!" Alyan closed his eyes, breathed in deep before letting it out.

Sasuke and Sakura both closed their eyes and did the same. Naruto looked at the three of them before shrugging a bit and did the same thing.

They sat in silence for a long while before a dull thump came from Alyan's right. He peeked an eye open, and saw that Naruto had fallen asleep. Alyan smiled a bit and shook his head slightly before closing his eyes and continuing with his meditation.

After another long time, another dull thump sounded from Alyan's left. Alyan opened his eyes fully and looked to where Sakura used to be sitting. Now she was on her back, fast asleep. Alyan sighed through his nose, smiled a tiny smile, and shook his head a bit more.

"So Sasuke." Alyan watched as he jumped a bit at the unexpected noise.

"Hmm." He hummed.

"Do you have any idea how tempted I am to draw something on their faces now that they're asleep?"

Sasuke scoffed, opened his eyes and said blandly, "Have you no self control?"

"No, that's why I used to be fat. Now that I'm more active, I can eat all the food I want and call it 'carbo-loading'... But you didn't need to know that."

Sasuke scoffed again, but this time a bit softer. "You always used to say things I didn't need to know. What makes now any different?"

Alyan shrugged a massive, over exaggerated shrug. "Dunno. Maybe it's cuz you need to learn from me, and before it was more of an older brother-younger brother thing?" Alyan pulled a face. "I'm not sure, but things are different now. That much I know."

"Well, why can't things be like how they were? I learned a lot from you then."

"Because I don't have your brother to fawn over."

"What?" Sasuke looked shocked. And slightly sick.

"Oh shit, did I say that out loud?"

"Yeah, you kinda did."

"Forget I said anything. Nothing happened. We were talking about..." Alyan looked around, embarrassed. His hand touched the grass. He petted it fondly. "The grass. And how nice it looks. That's what we were talking about, forget the fact that I think-THOUGHT your brother's incredibly attractive. He's not anymore... Just to clear that up."

Sasuke smiled a bit and shook his head. He still looked a bit sick. "Should we wake these two up?"

"Yeaahhh probably. We've been sitting here for who knows how long, and my butt is asleep."

"And you haven't thought of any ideas?"

Alyan stood up. "That too." He took the two steps it took to get in front of Sasuke before he thrust his hand out. Sasuke took it, and Alyan hauled him up onto his feet. Alyan looked toward Sakura before slowly grinning evilly. "I bet Sakura would just looove having you wake her up."

"Me?" Sasuke looked offended. "Why don't you do it?"

"Cuz I'll just kick her." Alyan said off-handedly.

Sasuke looked at Alyan. And kept looking at him disbelievingly.

"I'll kick him awake too." Alyan pointed to Naruto.

"Kick, though. Don't you think that's a bit much, even for you?"

"Well, not kick-kick. More like poke with my foot. But all the same, hitting someone with your foot, no matter how lightly, is considered kicking. Rule number 2."

"What about rule 1?" Sasuke asked.

"Rule number 1 is to always look before going through a doorway. You never know when you might be attacked, or if someone put up a trap while your back was turned."

Sasuke nodded. "Those are some good rules so far."

"Yeah, wait til you hear 15. That's a real kick in the pants."

Alyan turned to Naruto before lightly budging him with his foot. "Hey Naruto. Wake up. You fell asleep, you dummy."

Naruto opened his eyes slowly. "What happened." He asked groggily, sleep making his voice a bit rough.

"You and Sasuke got married. Tonight is your honeymoon, but Sasuke's having second thoughts because you're such a lazy bum."

Sasuke looked offended. "Hey!"

"What?!" Naruto yelled at the same time as Sasuke's indignant outburst.

All the commotion woke Sakura up. Alyan turned to her. "Evening, pinkie pie. Have a nice nap? By the way. Sasuke and Naruto are married."

...

Alyan had never laughed so hard in his life after hearing a blood curdling scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still stuck on chapter 12 :(
> 
> Like, I know what I want to happen, but I don't know how to phrase it?? And I might just half-ass it because I can??? Like, how does one go about describing Ichiraku Ramen and everyone's interactions with a snarky oc?????
> 
> Idk man. Idek...


	12. Untitled Part 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *(since no one commented their idea of who Alyan might be modeled after, 50 points to no one.  
> Alyan is modeled after the adorable, angry kitten, Kadaj from Final Fantasy 7-Advent Children movie.   
> Fun fact: Final Fantasy has a book! Final Fantasy 7 Lateral Biography Turks -The Children Are Alright- is a Japanese novel that is currently in translation by fans only. The first half was released December 2014.   
> I'm just now thinking that maybe the clues might not have been as easy as they could have been, plus I was constantly changing them to better fit in with more information than just rumor, but what do you expect for 50 house points?)*

"Alright, enough fooling around." Alyan said after he stopped laughing. "I'm just kidding, Sakura. No one here is married."

That calmed Sakura down a bit. Not much, just a bit. She still looked pretty worried that her crush was somehow married to Naruto.

"I'm seriously just kidding, Sakura. Absolutely no one is married, nor are they getting married any time soon. I like to mess with people, and you just make it so easy, I couldn't help myself." Alyan told her. "Since it's so late, we should all go out to dinner. My treat. What do you guys want to eat then."

"Ramen at Ichiraku!!" Naruto shouted happily, throwing his arms up in the air as high as he could.

"I don't know where that is!" Alyan yelled just as happily, also throwing his hands up in the air as far as he could. "Lead the way!"

And he did. Naruto was jabbering away about all the different kinds of ramen at Ichiraku and what his favorite was. Alyan asked what the very best ramen was, and Naruto happily told him what the very best was; Miso, with extra char siu.

Then he went along explaining all of the differences between all the different kinds were, what his favorite out of each category was, and soon enough, they had arrived.

"Hello, Ichiraku!!" Naruto happily yelled as he walked into the ramen shop.

He was greeted with a hearty hello from Sir Ichiraku, and Naruto took his place at the bar table. Sasuke and Sakura followed suit shortly thereafter.

Alyan took a brief glance around the small shop before taking his seat with his students.

"OK kiddies, order whatever and however much you want, I'm buying."

Naruto made a happy noise and started rattling off his order of 20 miso ramen with extra char siu, but not at the same time, making both Alyan and Sir Ichiraku laugh.

"Um, sensei? How can you afford to buy so many expensive things?" Sakura asked shyly.

"Guuurl, I've been going on excessively dangerous missions for a long time. I get like, twenty five thousand dollars every mission I go on, and I only spend maybe three thousand in supplies for the next mission? What I mostly spend money on is my leathers. I'm gonna have to buy a new set soon, mine are starting to wear out. Either that or buy new leather panels and have them put on, I don't know yet. But anyway, that's how. I've saved up like, a gazillion dollars from my missions."

"So does that mean you can buy me a new outfit?" Sakura said slyly.

"You? No, you look cute like that. Naruto? Heck yes, he needs a new wardrobe, like how visible is a blondie wearing orange? Very. He needs new clothes." Alyan stage-whispered to her.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled indignantly.

Alyan and Sakura shared a laugh while Sasuke ordered his food, 2 bowls of pork whatever with very long noodles and more soup, then Sakura, 1 bowl of shiyo.

Alyan didn't order anything for himself, claiming he wasn't feeling very hungry, and watched his team eat instead.

Sakura finished first and asked if she could get another.

Alyan smiled indulgently and said, "Of course, get what you want, my treat. Just make sure you eat it all, but don't eat too much and make yourself throw up."

They continued eating jovially, occasionally striking up conversation among each other or Sir Ichiraku, sometimes Alyan, but otherwise focused on eating.

After a while, Alyan laid his head on the bar table and closed his eyes. Soon enough, the cloth partition rustled and someone stepped inside. Alyan lifted his head up and turned to see who the newcomer was, his hand flying to his weapons pouch, opening the snap button without much thought.

"Hello, everyone." It was Kakashi. Alyan visibly relaxed, and closed his pouch. "Alyan, you'll have to excuse me if I vomit in your presence; I wasn't expecting to see your ugly mug today." He said laughingly.

"Oh ha ha. Very funny, mister 'I-Laugh-At-My-Own-Jokes-Because-No-One-Else-Will'. Or is it mister 'I-Think-I'm-Sexy-But-I'm-Really-Not'?" Alyan crossed his arms.

"Neither. Hey are you buying?" Kakashi sat down at the table.

"Yeah, enjoy. Order what you will." Alyan said and laid his head back down on the table.

After Kakashi ordered his choice, he turned to Alyan and asked, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"Nah, I'm not hungry.

"So what have you eaten today?" Kakashi asked casually.

"What?" Alyan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You must have had something to eat earlier if you're not hungry now. I'm just curious what it was."

"Well..." Alyan thought for a bit. "I guess I didn't eat anything today. I don't know, man. I'm just not hungry. I'll be starving later tonight, I just know it, but right now I'm not hungry."

"Uh-huh. So anyway. Introduce me to your team."

"Right. The blond is Naruto, he's loud. The pink haired miss is Sakura, she's got a massive crush on what's-his-face, and the black haired mister over there is what's-his-face Sasuke. He's Mister Broody McGrumpy-Pants. Team, this is my good buddy Kakashi. We met when he was an ANBU. I don't recall how, but somehow we did. Might've been into the whole Daddy scene at the time, but you know. It's just whatevs now. Still got a crush on him, but now it's more of a friend-crush than a crush-crush."

Kakashi laughed hard, wiped his eye and said, "God you're embarrassing. Daddy scene? Seriously? I'm just glad they're kids and don't know what you mean." Kakashi's order was served, and he pushed one bowl towards Alyan. "Eat it before it gets soggy."

"Don't tell me how to eat my food, jerk." Alyan turned to Sir Ichiraku and held out his hand. "Chopsticks, please, my good man." 

Kakashi held out his extra set. "Not from you, asshole." Alyan said, still holding out his hand. "You could have stuck them in your mouth, then I'd have your cooties, get pregnant and then I'd have a baby with you, and I'm just not ready for that kind commitment just yet." 

Sir Ichiraku handed Alyan a set of chopsticks. "Thank you, my good man."

Kakashi scoffed and mumbled, "Yet if it were Itachi, you wouldn't mind."

"I would so!" Alyan said indignantly. "I don't wanna have a baby with a family murderer. He'd kill me, he'd kill the baby, and he'd probably kill Sasuke, but then maybe not because he's weird like that, and I'm sure he's got some silly 'brotherly-love-that's-not-so-brotherly-if-you-catch-my-drift' thing going on with Sasuke..."

Kakashi was grinning under his mask, trying to stifle his laughing. Sir Ichiraku didn't bother trying to contain his laughter. "Do you even listen to yourself?"

"It comes and goes, why?"

"Look at your team, and you'll know why."

Alyan turned to his team. They all shared the same look of shocked, disgusted interest on their faces.

"You should probably watch what you say around them." Kakashi stage whispered.

"I should probably do that, yeah." Alyan said, looking sheepish and guilty.


	13. Untitled Part 13

Six weeks later, Alyan met his team at the usual field, excited about the news he was going to share with his team.

"So, my dear team." Alyan started out. "Can you guess what we're going to be doing today?"

"More medicine making?" Sakura.

"Goofing off again." Sasuke.

"Training?!" Naruto.

"Only one of you is right. Sakura, I've taught you all exactly how much I know about medicine making. Sasuke, we never goof off. And Naruto. Yes, we're doing ACTUAL TRAINING!!" Alyan threw his fists up in the air.

They all celebrated excitedly. Except Sasuke. He must be excited inwardly. After weeks of medicine making and wild herb recognition, they were doing some actual, legitimate training!

"Alright, guys and girl. Settle down, Sasuke. Seriously, at least attempt to contain your enthusiasm. I know it's exciting, but wow. Calm down. First things first, how much do you already know?"

"Why do you want to know that, sensei?" Sakura asked.

"So that I'm not teaching you all what you already know, duh. Like, what jutsu's do you already know, what do you specialize in, how can we make it better, what are your weak points, how can we make those better... You know, usual stuff."

"That's... Actually a good idea, sensei." Sasuke looked surprised and impressed at the same time.

"Wow, way to make me feel like an incompetent asshole. Of course it's a good idea, I came up with it. Every idea I ever have is a good idea, whether it works or not."

"Did you see that?!" Sasuke pointed toward the distance. Alyan raised his eyebrow and looked, as did the rest of the team. "That was my respect for you, flying away. I don't think it's ever going to come back." Sasuke lowered his hand, a smug look crossing his face. Naruto burst out in laughter, and Sakura giggled behind her hand.

Alyan gasped dramatically. "What the fucking hell was that??! Was that sarcasm?! When did that happen?!!"

"I've always had it, I've kept quiet about it though. Now you finally deserve it."

Alyan gasped again. "Your words cut me deep..." Alyan balled up his fist and pressed it to his heart. "Right here. Anyway, show me what you've got. We'll improve what you lack, strengthen what needs to be strengthened, and maybe, juuust mayybee, we can go on a mission by the end of the month." Alyan smiled a small smile and crossed his arms.

"Really?!!" Naruto shouted.

"Yeah, if I think you're ready, maybe we can go on one. Not anything dangerous, and definitely not tracking down someone's cat, but something. Sakura, you start, show me what jutsu techniques you specialize in, I'll be watching your hand movements, and if I see you doing something incorrectly, I'll help fix it. Whatever you're weak in, we'll probably have to have a day to ourselves where all I do is help with it. I haven't decided yet."

"Alright." Sakura sounded uncertain. "What should I do?"

"How about a basic clone technique? We'll start with that first, for all of you, you pick something, and then something you're not too sure about."

"Okay." She sounded a bit more unsure of herself.

"It's not a test, just calm down. Do the signs, I know you can, and make another you. Just one. Ram, snake, tiger."

She nodded. "Ram, snake, tiger." She did the signs as confidently as she could, and made a Sakura clone. "I don't know, sensei. I don't like the feel of those hand signs."

"Okay, complement first; you have amazing control of your chakra. Like, phenomenal control, and I couldn't be prouder, I'm not even that good at controlling it. And now for my critique; what we need to work on is a better way for you to do the jutsu. I can see you struggled a bit on that. We'll work on it later, though, one on one. I'm going to work on an effective way that might work for you, alright? On to the next thing, my dear. Your favorite move, I don't care what it is."

Sakura nodded again and did what she did best. Another standard technique taught by the Academy.

"Okay, that's good. I'll teach you more things."

Sasuke was up next.

"Okay, sweets, you're up! Remember, clone, your favorite, what you're struggling with. Aannnnd, go!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and did a simple cloning jutsu, making a dozen of himself. Each Sasuke vanished after a minute, Sasuke not even winded after making so many.

Alyan stood and watched quietly. "Your favorite move."

Sasuke did a small Fire Release and held it for a full minute, still not winded.

"Alright. And now what you're struggling with."

Sasuke scoffed. "I'm an Uchiha, we don't struggle."

Alyan scoffed right back at him. "Whatever, baby face. I'll teach you something so advanced you'll struggle for at least a week, sound good? Naruto, you're up! Show me what you got, I bet it's great!"

Naruto nodded before doing a flawless shadow-clone jutsu and making 5 exact copies of himself.

"Wait, what the hell was that? Did you just do a shadow-clone jutsu?!"

Each Naruto smiled smugly and nodded, all of them saying some variation of "Yes" and putting heir hands behind heir heads.

"That was amazing!! Oh my god! How did you learn that?!"

"Read it from a scroll!" They all shouted in unison.

"That's awesome..." Alyan whispered to himself. "Okay, your favorite move!"

"Wait, sensei, no!!" Sakura yelled in horror.

"SEXY JUTSU!!"

"What?" Alyan asked, chuckling.

Suddenly, he was surrounded by several sexy, nude, female versions of Naruto, each of which tried flirting with him, and started grabbing at his clothing and hair, grinding on whatever part of him they could reach, and rubbing their hands on his face, chest, back, and one even copped a feel on his crotch and ass.

Giggles bubbled up from Alyan's stomach, starting out quiet, and before he knew what was happening, Alyan burst out into full blown hysteric laughter. Alyan grabbed his sides and leaned forward, trying to quell the laughter.

"Naruto!! Look at what you did!! You broke our sensei!" Sakura yelled, smacking each of the Naruto's on the head. "You can't do that to him, he might want you to do that all the time, and then where would we be?!" She went on and on in her lecture.

After a full four minutes of laughing hard, Alyan straightened up, giggling quietly to himself, before he wiped his eyes.

"Oh, oh my god. That was fantastic. My sides hurt so bad from laughing so hard." Alyan giggled again.

Naruto released the jutsu combo and returned to a singular, normal Naruto. "You know, sensei, most adult guys I do that to don't laugh."

"Yeah, what do they do?"

"Burst into explosive nose bleeds."

"Probably because it turns them on. You will never have that effect on me while you're that way."

Naruto groaned. "Why not?!"

"Cuz I'm gay? The naked female body has no hold on me." Alyan shrugged.

"Gay? What does that mean?" Sakura asked.

Alyan opened his mouth to answer when he was interrupted by Sasuke. "It means he likes boys the same way girls like boys."

"Well, maybe not boys, but adult guys around my age, yeah." Alyan finished. "Anyway. Adult conversation, shouldn't be having it with you, let's move on. What are you struggling with, Naruto?"

"Everything else..." Sakura whispered snidely.

Naruto hung his head in shame. Alyan stopped what he was about to do and turned to look at her.

"What was that, Sakura? Do you think you're better than him? Because you're not. Yes, you may have exceptional control of your chakra, but you were shaky doing just a simple clone jutsu. You can shut up, Naruto can show me what he's struggling with, and we can move on. Agreed?"

"You don't have to get mad, sensei. It's true." Naruto said quietly.

"I'm not mad. Not yet, at least. Another few comments like that one and I will be though. You all have seen how explosive my anger can be, just think about how horrible it'll be, focused on you and not a box."

Sakura flinched. "Sorry, sensei."

"No, no. Don't apologize to me, you made that rude comment about Naruto. Apologize to him the same way you apologized to me."

"Sorry, Naruto..."

"It's alright, Sakura. I forgive you." Naruto smiled at her.

She rolled her eyes at his smile, crossed her arms, and pointedly looked away.

Alyan opened his mouth to get on with the lesson when a hand covered it from behind. Alyan turned his head to see who it was, only to discover it was Kakashi.

Alyan tried to ask "what are you doing here?" but it just came out a garbled mess.

Kakashi chuckled. "What was that, I can't understand you."

Alyan sighed and licked Kakashi's palm.

"That won't work on me, I'm wearing gloves. Speak up." Kakashi shoved two fingers between Alyan's lips and into his mouth.

Alyan huffed and bit his fingers hard.

"A little harder, and I'll let you go." So Alyan bit him harder. "Alright, that's good. You've got a big mouth, I'd like to put it to good use, one day." Kakashi pulled his hand away and wiped his fingers on his pants.

Alyan looked confused by his statement. "What?"

"Nothing, anyway what are you doing today?"

Alyan looked confused for a bit longer before he schooled his face into one of giddiness. "Naruto, show him what we're doing."

Naruto made five more clones of himself and each yelled, "SEXY JUTSU" only to surround Kakashi on all sides and attempt the same thing they did on him earlier. Alyan busted into more giggles, just watching the obscene scene before him. 

"Oh? What's this?" One Naruto asked, fondling the front of Kakashi's pants.

"Nothing. Whatever I might have had, died." Kakashi replied. "I guess your little technique doesn't work on me."

"Aw. You're no fun." Naruto and Alyan said simultaneously. All of the Naruto's poofed and disappeared, while one stayed and turned back to normal.

"What can I say? Someone else must have caught my eye. He's really pretty, too. Anyone ever tell you you're really pretty, Alyan?"

"What does that have to do with the fact my best friend has a crush on someone?! I demand to meet this person!"

Kakashi shook his head. "You ever hear the phrase "in one ear, out the other"?" He murmured to Alyan.

"Anyway, team!" Alyan disregarded Kakashi's statement. "Time to learn new things! I'm going to assume you all know every genjutsu known to every ninja ever for now, we'll one-on-one later so I can work with each of you better than group activities--"

"A good thing, really." Kakashi interrupted.

Alyan hit his chest with the back of his hand. "You can honestly shut up. So right now we're going to work on taijutsu. You know. Physical combat. Fun stuff."

"Yeah!!" Naruto shouted happily.

"Awesome enthusiasm. First let's start out with..." Alyan continued with the lesson, guiding his students through the movements. Sasuke and Sakura were quick to pick up the moves while Naruto struggled more.

Sakura made a snide comment to Sasuke, who just rolled his eyes, about how Naruto really didn't deserve to be a ninja, only knowing two techniques and even failing at taijutsu.

Alyan rounded on Sakura. "One more thing. You say one more snide, disparaging comment to or about Naruto, or anyone for that matter, and I will get mad. Just one more, go ahead and try me."

Sakura was silent.

"Anyway, as I was trying to get at..." And Alyan continued with the lesson as planned.

Kakashi stood back, watching the silver haired youth instruct his students, affection heavy in Kakashi's eyes.

As the lesson wrapped up, Kakashi stepped to Alyan's side. "Wanna walk home together?"

"Nope, Sakura and I have something important to talk about. I'll see you probably tomorrow, though?" Alyan turned his too green eyes to Kakashi's face.

"Yeah." He said without hesitation. "You know, your eyes are just so--"

"Sensei, hurry up! It's getting dark and dinner is almost ready!" Sakura interrupted.

"Alright, let's head out, little miss. I'll see you tomorrow, Kakashi!" And there he went, off with his student, towards her house. If Kakashi stared at Alyan's leather clad ass as Alyan walked away, no one had to know.  
________

"So." Alyan started. "You hate Naruto."

"I don't hate him! Hate is a strong word."

"Okay, so you very strongly dislike him. Why?"

"Well because he's just SO annoying! All of his jokes are lame, he thinks he's funny, that sexy jutsu thing he does isn't even flattering to anyone, and he's got this annoying crush on me! Obviously I don't like him, why can't he just get the hint!!"

"All reasonable things. I get it. Anything else?"

"Well.. Also there's that thing with the... The demon." She whispered.

"That thing with the demon, eh? Do you strongly dislike me for 'that demon thing'? Because, you know, we share a few traits, some of which I'd rather not get too deeply into. But do you strongly dislike me for the same reason?"

"What?! No! Of course not! I don't know you that well!" She seemed shocked.

"Yeah? And how well do you know Naruto, besides what he lets on?"

"Well..." She thought for a while. "I guess I don't know him all that well..."

"Think about that. You don't know him well, but you strongly dislike him, mostly because of 'that demon thing'. That is the exact reason I hardly came back here. I didn't feel safe here, and I felt even less safe in any village anywhere else. All because of something I can't control. When I was out in the open, hunting down rogue ninja, that's when I felt the safest. At least then I knew, should I be killed, it won't be because of my demon, but because I did something stupid like let my guard down." Sakura was quiet, her bottom lip trembling. "Now tell me; Do you want that life for him? Do you want him to feel the safest, not at home, but in constant danger?"

"No!!" She started sobbing.

Alyan patted her on the back. "That's what I thought. Ease up a bit on him. It only takes one person to make someone feel at home." They arrived at her doorstep. "Go home, take care. See you tomorrow."

"Wait, sensei! I'm sorry...! I'm so sorry you feel that way, I'm sorry I made Naruto feel that way, and I'm sorry!"

"Ohh, don't cry!" Alyan hugged her. "It's okay, I'm here to stay. At least until you become chunin, then I'm gone again. I'm starting to get antsy, staying in one place all the time."

She cried for a while longer before she pulled away and started making her way into her house.

"I'll see you tomorrow, sensei. And I'll be better toward Naruto, too."

"Good! Goodnight, Sakura."

"Goodnight, sensei."


	14. Something to Tide You Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *(Mostly unedited thing to tide you over. This is based in the past, when Kakashi was still an ANBU and first discovered that a sweet jonin named Alyan, not the Demon Child Alyan, even existed.)*

It was late at night. Kakashi was leaning on a tree, high up above the ground. He had taken his mask off to let the cool night air grace his face. His small crew was resting in other branches. Kakashi volunteered to stay up for a few hours, even though he was tired, to keep watch over them, allowing them get some sleep with minimal disturbances. Kakashi sighed, letting his thoughts wander to home. He kept his mind slightly occupied with trivial thoughts about how he might have forgotten to wash his dishes, or how his fruits and meats would be spoiled when he arrived home. He leaned his head back onto the tree and looked up at the night sky.

It was clear, that night. Up above him, he saw the stars form a giant, swirling river above him. His breath was momentarily taken away from him... That is until he heard a small curse come from below him.

Kakashi looked down quickly, trying to pinpoint the source so it could be taken care of before his team woke. His sharingan eye scanned the area quickly, and landed on a person just a few branches below. Kakashi put his mask back on and quickly and quietly dropped down, branch by branch, until he was only one away.

A kunai flew by his head.

"Who are you?" The guy on the branch asked. He was beautiful, even though he was covered in blood. He had a large, heavily bleeding gash on his left thigh, and his right hip didn't look much better.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." Kakashi responded softly, dropping down in front of the beautiful man. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Your blood dripping down might give away my position."

"My apologies." He said, looking angrily crestfallen. "I didn't mean to bleed away your position. I'll move further down the way." He shifted to try and get away.

"The damage is already done." He paused. The boy sat back where he was, watching with mistrustful eyes. "You should probably tourniquet that leg, get it wrapped up."

"Ah, yes. I hadn't thought of that. Thank you for your brilliant idea." Yet he made no move to try and stem the flow of blood.

"Do you not have a tourniquet?"

"No, I don't. I dropped it a while back."

"Where's your team?"

The young man's eyes became suddenly too shiny; Kakashi immediately assumed they all died. "This is my first solo mission. I don't have a team."

Kakashi chuckled. "Well, it was stupid of you to come unprepared."

"Yeah. It really was." The other man sighed.

Kakashi opened the pouch strapped to his leg, pulled out a blue ribbon, lifted the other man's leg and tied it tightly and carefully 4 fingers above the wound. "When the blood slows, I'll wrap it up. You should be good if you go home afterwards. Go see a nurse, let them patch you up."

"...Yeah, sure. I'll go see a nurse." Kakashi had an odd feeling that he wouldn't.

A minute later, Kakashi was packing the wound with gauze he found in the other guys pouch and carefully wrapping the boys leg. Kakashi flicked his gaze to the boys side; the wound was scabbed over, so he'd be fine there. Then he looked at the boys face. He was ashen from blood loss. Blood was caked in parts of his hair, and he looked so tired and... sad? Kakashi removed the tourniquet moments after finishing.

"Are you having a problem at home, kid?"

"No sir." He responded quietly.

"What's your name? You do realize I can't tell you mine." Kakashi had to keep him talking, the boy might not wake up otherwise.

"Alyan. If you've ever been to Konoha, you might have heard of me."

Kakashi's eyes widened. The demon boy.

"No, no. I've never been. Tell me about it."

As the kid told Kakashi about his home town, he noticed how his eyes sparkled with happiness even though Kakashi knew his experience must be anything but

"Yeah?" He asked when Alyan stopped speaking. "And how do the villagers treat you? You mentioned earlier that people talk about you?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Alyan hung his head.

"Okay, that's fine. You don't have to." Kakashi already knew. "So, your first solo mission."

"Yeah, I figured it was time to start being a burden on just myself."

"A burden?"

"Yeah." He mumbled, barely coherent. "I'm always getting hurt on missions, and I can't rely on my team to save me all the time. I know they only do it so they don't get caught. Now that I'm not on the team, they won't have to worry anymore."

Kakashi snapped his fingers a few times, making Alyan look up at him. "Don't fall asleep on me, kid. You're... too important for that." If Alyan noticed the slight pause, he didn't comment.

"I won't."

"Tell me about your mission. What were you doing?"

"I was hunting down a class S rogue ninja. He got me by surprise."

"Class S? Isn't that a bit out of your skill zone?" Kakashi only asked because this kid couldn't be older than 14.

"For your information, I'm a Jonin. I'm training to be an ANBU so I can go on Star ranked missions and protect everyone." Well, color Kakashi impressed.

"Everyone?"

"The villagers in Konoha. They may hate me, for whatever reason, but I wouldn't wish anything bad on them."

"Why not? They hate you."

"Because I love them... Or I want to win their love, I'm not sure."

Poor kid. Kakashi thought. He's never going to win their love. I might as well have let him bleed out. At least then he'd have a Hero's funeral, having fallen in combat.

"Don't worry, you'll win them one day." Kakashi lied.

"You think so? I'm trying so hard." Alyan's eyes watered.

Fuck! Kakashi's heart clenched. "Yeah. Just you wait. Soon enough, everyone there is going to love you. You'll be Konoha's protector, they'll love you for that alone. And when they see how great you are, they'll love you even more."

Tears slid down Alyan's cheeks. "Thank you. I know you're lying, but thank you for trying anyway."

There was a rustling from up above them. Kakashi glanced up, noting that one of his teammates was up and looking for him. She made a bird call, and he answered. She looked down below, drew a weapon and fell down to meet them.

"Who are you?" She asked when she was close enough.

"He was leaving, no need to worry."

She was still for a while. "He was bleeding."

"And I patched him up before he got more blood everywhere."

"It's my turn for lookout, I want him gone now. You get some rest."

"Can't I stay until my leg won't burst open again?"

"No. Leave, demon child."

Alyan looked hurt. "Fine." His lips trembled slightly. He dropped out of the tree and staggered away.

"That was awful of you, Karen." Kakashi said, watching Alyan limp away.

"You know as well as I do that he's dangerous. I don't want him anywhere near us, especially when he's injured. If we get attacked, all he's going to do is run, he won't help us at all. You know that as well as I do."

"Yeah." Kakashi leaped back up to their temporary camp, Karen followed shortly after.

Kakashi leaned back on his tree, thinking about all of the lies he just told Alyan. Alyan knew he was lying, he said so himself.

But secretly, Kakashi hoped that Alyan would turn those lies into truths. That sweet kid deserved the world.


	15. Untitled Part 15

It took another few days before Alyan was satisfied with how far along his team had come.

Sakura learned new ways to do jutsu's that worked for her. Naruto learned so many new moves, both in genjutsu and taijutsu. And Sasuke was taught a moderately complicated jutsu that he certainly struggled with.

"Okay team! I think you're all ready for... A REAL MISSION!"

The team cheered.

"But first, we have to go to the Hokage's office to get our assignment. After that, I'll give you all an hour to get ready, and then we head off! 

"Only an hour?" Sakura complained.

"Okay, half an hour, does that sound better?" Alyan put his hands on his hips.

"What?!! Half an hour!? I live that far away!" Naruto groused.

"Okay, an hour and a half. And then we meet here, at the gates. But first we need to get our mission from the Hokage."

"Why don't we get ready first, then get the mission, and then leave on the mission?" Sasuke asked.

"Let me answer your question with another question; how will we know what to pack if we don't know what our mission will be?"

"Hm." Sasuke grunted.

"I'll take that as a..." Alyan cleared his throat and did his best (read: worst) impression of Sasuke he could possibly muster. ""Oh em Gee, sensei! What a fantastic idea, I shouldn't question you like I do because I'm a stupid butt wipe and am trying my gosh darn best to prove that the true butt wipe is you and not me!"" He returned his voice to normal. "Seems fair to me, honestly."

Sasuke grunted again.

Alyan rolled his eyes.

"Onward, ho!!" Alyan pointed toward the Hokage's office building.

Team AlNaSasKura, as Naruto dubbed them earlier that week, made their way to the Hokage's office.

Just as Alyan was about to open the door, he suddenly realized that he should probably set a good example and knock. So he did. He knocked twice and stepped back to wait for the Hokage to allow him to enter when Naruto just walked right up to the door and swung it open.

"Hey there, old man! We're ready for our first mission!!" He declared loudly and proudly.

Alyan was shocked. What. The. Fuck did he just do!!! "Naruto! You can't just enter the Hokage's office without permission! That's why I knocked! Have you no respect for your elder?"

"What? It's fine, I do this all the time!" Naruto argued back.

Alyan's jaw dropped. "You do what?! Do you know how bad that makes me look?! You didn't even follow the first goddamned rule I set out for you all, you hair clip!"

Naruto was silent. "What first rule?" He tilted his head to the side, thoroughly confused.

Alyan pulled his hair. He made unintelligible, frantic noises. The Hokage just laughed.

"It's alright, Alyan. I've come to expect this from Naruto." He said slowly. "There isn't any need to have some sort of attack. Just breathe. You're not in trouble for anything. Now, what was this about a mission?"

Alyan took a deep breath and released his hair. He swiftly looked around the room, noticing a trip wire low to the ground that Naruto just barely missed. He stepped over the wire discreetly, as to not let his team know it was there. As he stepped in front of the desk, he tucked his hands behind his back and measured his feet out directly under his shoulders."Right. My apologies, sir. I feel as though my team has learned all they can from me at the current moment. I think my team and I are ready for our first field mission, sir."

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Sakura tripped slightly, and Sasuke steadied her, but they remained silent. Thankfully Naruto hadn't noticed.

"A mission you say? Well, let me see if there are any requests." The Hokage started shuffling around in the drawers on his desk.

Alyan wrinkled his brow, thinking That's not where the mission scrolls are kept. Oh well, the Hokage must know what he's doing.

"Hmm. It seems like we don't have any mission requests. We'll, aside for this one to find someone's pregnant, semi-feral cat?" He held up a scroll. It looked old, as if it were... the same fucking one that Alyan went on all those years ago.

"Fuck. No. There is no goddamn way we're taking that mission."

"Well then. It seems we've reached an impasse." He shrugged.

"Then I guess we're going to have to come back at a later date." Alyan shrugged as well.

"What?! No!! We trained all this time and now we're here! We can't just walk out without a mission!!" Naruto protested.

Suddenly the door behind them swung open and a guy with long spikey black hair and a bandage across his nose came in. He was holding two small boxes filled with scrolls hastily shoved in that Alyan immediately recognized.

"Hey Kotetsu." Alyan greeted.

"Sup, Alyan." He responded. "You and Kakashi get together yet?"

Alyan wrinkled his brow. "Get together for what? Are we planning a party?"

Kotetsu shook his head, a smile on his face. "Never mind. Hokage, sir." He turned to the aforementioned man, "why are there boxes of mission scrolls on the desk downstairs?"

"I was having a little fun. You are as well, and therefore cannot judge me for mine." He chuckled. "I see you brought them."

"I figured you might want them." He set the boxes on the desk.

"Thank you, Kotetsu. Would you mind waiting outside for us to finish here?"

"Of course not, Hokage." He bowed and left.

"Alyan, be a good boy and organize these scrolls, would you?"

"Of course, Hokage." Alyan stepped to the desk and started organizing the scrolls by classification. When they were sorted, Alyan pushed the class E scrolls to the front and put the rest where they belonged; in separate boxes on the table by the far wall.

"Thank you, Alyan." Alyan resumed his position in front of the Hokage, slightly behind his team. "Now, these scrolls here are skill appropriate to you three. Alyan will read each mission to you all, and you will pick which mission best suits your current status."

Alyan stepped forward and grabbed a scroll. "Thank you, sir." He read off the mission details slowly so his team could understand every requirement for this mission.

He closed it when he was finished, set if off to the side, and grabbed another one. He went through each scroll meticulously, pausing on occasion to answer a question his team might have had.

When he reached the final scroll, he picked it up and opened it. He paused slightly when he recognized the writing; Kakashi wrote this one. "It would appear Kakashi needs help with something." Naruto and Sakura smiled, excitedly hoping to see how they can help Kakashi. "Please contain your enthusiasm, Sasuke. I thought we discussed this."

Sasuke, of course, hummed and rolled his eyes.

He read through the scroll, and he saw the excitement die in his students eyes when he read that all Kakashi needed help with was cleaning his apartment.

"Goddamn lazy ass." Alyan grumped. "I guess we're not going to take this one, yeah?"

"Yeah..." Sakura mumbled in disappointment.

"So, which one? We can pick Kakashi's scroll, it's still an option."

"Well I'm sure not cleaning his house, that's just crazy!" Naruto pouted.

"I don't know, sensei." Sakura quietly said. "I kind of like the third one you read." That one was picking an elderly lady's vegetables.

"Are you kidding!" Naruto grumped. "We might as well do the fourth one!" Pulling weeds.

"You both are crazy, the second one is the obvious choice." Pet sitting and dog walking.

"Why do we even have to do these, sensei!! They're not even real missions!" Naruto spun to him angrily.

"Yeah, but they teach you a lot."

"Like what?!"

"How to take what you can get, for one. Discipline, for another. And also the fact that sometimes, you do what you can to help others, even if it's demeaning, even if you really don't want to. Missions are about getting a sense of community. If you don't know the people you're protecting by going on these easy missions first, getting to know them, and then upgrade to much more dangerous missions to protect these people, why even do any of them at all?"

"Is that really how you feel about them, Alyan?" The Hokage asked seriously. He was looking at him closely, and Alyan didn't like the spotlight at all.

"Uh, yes sir. I only go on those dangerous missions because I know that if I don't, someone else's kid will have to. I mean, don't get me wrong! I love the danger, but sometimes, I'd really rather not..."

"If sometimes you don't want to, then why do it?" Sasuke asked quietly.

Alyan sighed and laughed uncomfortably. "I always wonder to myself What if they don't come back? Will anyone blame me for their child either going missing or dying? What if they were a parent or going to be a parent? I just can't let that happen. If I'm able, I'll do it."

"Do you love the people of Konoha, Alyan?" The Hokage asked, suddenly looking slightly miffed. He seemed to be in a mix of angry and shocked, as he should have; he knew first hand how much Alyan was gone, going on dangerous missions and, in a few cases, coming back half dead, needing to be hospitalized for weeks at a time on oxygen and fluids.

"I-I don't think I'd go that far." Alyan's face was red, his eyes downcast to the floor.

The Hokage nodded. "Pick your mission and leave." He said quietly. He never took that tone with Alyan.

Alyan looked hurt briefly before he brightened for his team. "Okay, team. Decide on a mission. I'm down for anything."

They couldn't agree on a single mission. Alyan reached out and grabbed one at random, quickly making sure it wasn't Kakashi's scroll.

"Since you couldn't pick one, I did. Let's head out." Alyan, Sakura, and Sasuke all stepped over the wire. Naruto turned around and said a loud goodbye to the Hokage. He still missed the trip wire.

"So what did we get sensei?"

"I dunno," he smiled, "what do you think we all got? 500 yen to the winner."

"Probably garbage duty." Sasuke suggested.

"I think we're doing pet sitting." Sakura replied.

"As long as we're not cleaning out Kakashi's house, I don't care." Naruto agreed grumpily.

"And the winner is..." Alyan unrolled the scroll. "Pet sitting! 500 yen to you, Sakura."

"Yay!" She cheered.

"We're only pet sitting for one family, but they've got a lot of dogs. Can anyone guess who were pet sitting for??"

"Is it the Inu's?!" Naruto asked, unbelieving.

"Ding ding ding! You are correct!"  
__________

After a long day of pet sitting and dog walking, it was finally time to go home and relax... And take a shower, four of the dogs peed on Alyan's leg the entire time.

As Alyan entered his house, something didn't feel right. Like someone was in his house. Alyan's eyes swept over his apartment, when he found nothing out of place, he entered cautiously and slowly. He took out a kunai, prepared to throw it at his intruder.

A noise came from the kitchen; it sounded like someone was making food.

What?

Alyan closed the door behind himself to alert the person that he was home. Alyan stepped in the doorway and saw Kakashi there at his stove wearing a frilly pink apron.

"Welcome home, Alyan!" Kakashi called. "Dinner is almost ready, you get cleaned up."

"Okay, then. It might take a while, I've got to get dog piss out of leather."

"You might as well just get new leathers." Kakashi supplied.

"Yeah, I might just do that. I needed a new set anyway, I guess I'll just order two instead of one." Alyan left the room.

He sat on the couch carefully, as to not get dog urine on it, and slid his ruined boots off disgustedly. After they were off, he pulled his gloves off, and unzipped his leathers to his waist then peeled it off his shoulders, chest, stomach and back, letting it hang at his waist. After that, he left to the bathroom, turned on the shower, freed his legs, and stepped in.

He showered slowly, reviewing his day. The Hokage didn't seem pleased that Alyan loved the townspeople. It's as if he preferred having a cold hearted fighter than someone that cared for the people he fought for.

Alyan sighed miserably, grabbed the shampoo and washed his hair slowly, making sure he covered every stand with soap. Once he was satisfied, he rinsed his hair, washed his body with another soap, commenting to himself that he really just needed to find a two-in-one shampoo/body wash combo, took special care to wash his legs and feet and remove any urine that might have gotten on his skin, rinsed the soap off his body, turned off the water, and stepped out.

Only then did he realize that he forgot a towel.

He popped the door open slightly. "Hey, Kakashi?"

"Yes, my dear?" He was closer than the kitchen, possibly on the couch?

"I forgot a towel, can you get me one?"

"Sure. Where are they?"

"In the cabinet at the end of the hall."

As Kakashi passed the bathroom door, he commented, "Now, you could have gotten it yourself."

"Maybe I didn't want you to see me naked and ask about all of my scars."

Kakashi grabbed a fluffy white towel from the cabinet. "I might have asked questions, but it's not like I wouldn't have enjoyed the view while I was at it." He held the towel out for Alyan.

"You know. You keep saying things like that, but I never understand. What the hell do you mean?" He took the proffered towel and wrapped it around his hips before leaving the bathroom.

"You'll understand one day." Kakashi grabbed Alyan by the neck and kissed the top of his head.

Alyan pushed him away with a smile on his face. "What the hell are you doing? Get away from me!" He giggled.

Kakashi laughed along but stepped away. "Get dressed, dinner is ready, after all."

"Yeah, yeah. It better taste as good as it smells or I'm leaving." Alyan left to his room.

He dressed quickly in something he found in his dresser, an old grey shirt he had gotten from Itachi after he had ruined Alyan's, their first fight, and some shorts he hadn't worn in years (since he was thirteen). As he pulled them on, he noticed that the shirt was massive and hung low on his thighs, and the shorts were nothing more than slightly looser underwear.

Oh well, it's only Kakashi. Alyan shrugged and left the room.

"Okay, Kakashi. What's for dinner, I'm starving." Alyan walked into the kitchen and saw Kakashi putting the food onto serving trays and putting them on the table.

"For dinner we have..." Kakashi turned to him and stuttered out, "uhh, zucchini and yellow squash pasta with a m-meat sauce and sauteed mushrooms, garlic and onions."

Alyan smiled widely. "That sounds great!" He took a seat at the table. When Kakashi set down the rest of the food, they served themselves and ate in moderate silence.

"So Alyan, what's with the clothes?"

"Hmm? Oh, I just found them in my dresser. How do I look?" He struck a pose.

"Entirely ridiculous. I suggest you take it all off."

Alyan choked on his food. "Right now?"

"Yes. Right now." Kakashi said, looking quite serious.

"How about no?" Alyan raised an eyebrow.

"Suit yourself. But you do look ridiculous."

"I'm sure I do."

"Anyway, there was this orange-y red mark on your chest, just below your neck. What is that?"

"Hmm?" Alyan scooped another mouthful into his mouth and looked up from his food. "Oh, that." He chewed and swallowed, Kakashi's eyes following the bob of his Adam's apple. "That's the mark they put on me when they sealed That Bitch inside me."

"Does she act up much, anymore?" Kakashi asked, genuinely concerned.

"Not so much, no. We had a talk one sleepless night. She's not allowed to constrict my throat anymore, and technically I'm not allowed to call her That Bitch. Her name is Ryutatsu."

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully.

They ate in silence for a while longer, Alyan occasionally making small moaning noises when he took a bite. "How did you learn to cook so well?"

Kakashi shifted in his seat awkwardly. "Uh, you know. I'm older than you, I've been around more, and I experiment a lot... I-in, in the kitchen." He said quickly.

"You gotta teach me." Alyan said before taking another bite.

After dinner was over and the dishes were washed, they sat together on the sofa and talked quietly.

"How exactly did dog piss get on your suit?" Kakashi questioned when he spotted the leather suit on the floor.

"We pet sat for the Inu's. I guess a couple of their dogs don't like me much and decided to piss on me. It's okay though." Alyan replied easily.

"That's gross. You know what you should have done?"

"We're not ever going to clean your house, Kakashi."

"Why not? I guarantee you'll never be peed on by a dog."

"Yeah, whatever. I'd prefer not to clean your house; you never know what you might find. Like those nasty sex novels you read all the time. Or worse, used condoms?"

"Hey, now. I don't bring all of my dates home. Most of the hanky panky goes down at their place or back alleys." Kakashi steadfastly ignored Alyan's groan of displeasure. "The special ones get to come home with me. You wanna come over?"

"And do what?" Alyan asked skeptically. "There's nothing to do at yours, at least here I can sleep."

"Well, there is something we could do." Kakashi suggested.

"I'm not massaging your back."

"Hey, don't knock it til you try it. It would be real easy, all you'd have to do is pin me down, sit on me, and get in there."

"No thanks, that's all kinds of gross; you'll be all sweaty, and I don't want to touch that."

"Oh, because you've tried it?"

"Well, no, I haven't. But it just seems weird, touching someone else like that." Alyan looked at the floor. "I should probably mop the floor, at some point."

Kakashi followed his gaze. "I think sweeping would be good enough."

Alyan hummed. They were quiet for quite some time, both lost in thought and enjoying the mutual silence between them. "I think the Hokage hates me." Alyan suddenly blurted.

"What makes you say that?" Kakashi asked curiously.

"Well, we went in for our mission, and somehow we got on the topic of what menial missions mean, and the Hokage asked me if I loved the people in the village. I told him I wouldn't go that far, and he kinda looked pissed because he knew what I meant, at least I think he does, and he told us to get our mission and get out." Alyan rushed. He took a deep breath and let it out. "Do you think he hates me?"

"I don't see how anyone could, to be honest. You're just perfect."

Alyan laughed, the tension ebbing away. "That's a lie, I'm in no way perfect."

"Yeah, sure. Well, it's late. I should be heading home. You sure you don't want to come? I'm sure I could think of some entertainment?" He waggled his visible eyebrow, but Alyan didn't notice.

"No thanks. I'm tired." Alyan rested his head against the back of the sofa. "I need to sleep, I'm meeting my team earlier than usual tomorrow so we can go on another mission."

"Sounds like a plan. Good night." Kakashi stood up, stretched a bit, waved to Alyan and left.

Alyan stood, locked the door behind Kakashi, took off his giant shirt and went to bed.


	16. Beginning of the End

They had gone on several missions, ranging from pet sitting, to taking garbage out, to pulling weeds, planting flowers, picking vegetables, planting seeds for new vegetables, and Alyan decided, after all three of them mentioned that they were really starting to enjoy these missions, that it was finally time to head to another village. It wouldn't be far, just to the next over, but he was sure they were ready.

As team AlNaSasKura came together, Alyan looked at them all with pride. "So team. Can you guess what I'm about to say?"

"We're going on a real mission, outside of the village?" Naruto asked, hopeful.

Alyan stuttered. "Well, yeah? How did you know?"

"Seriously?!" Both Naruto and Sakura yelled excitedly.

"Yeah, but how did you know?"

They talked excitedly between the two of them.

Alyan sighed. "Okay, guys. I've already gotten the mission." Alyan read it off slowly. "Plan accordingly. We'll shove off tomorrow, this may be a mock mission, but that doesn't mean you can't treat it like a vacation. So get a good nights sleep, eat well, and I'll see you tomorrow."

Later that night 

It might have just been a test mission, to see how they fared on the trip, but Alyan was excited, excited that his team and him were going to another town for the first time ever, but he was also extremely nervous because this was the first time his team was going to another town.

Unable to abate his anxiety, Alyan took a short walk to Kakashi's house. But as he left his own house, he felt eyes on his back. Alyan discreetly looked everywhere around the streets, trying to pinpoint the feeling, but just couldn't come to a conclusion of what and where it was.

Alyan finally arrived at Kakashi's door, so he knocked hard. After a few minutes, Kakashi opened the door. He wasn't wearing a shirt or his usual headband covering his eye, just his partial mask and pants.

"Hey, Kakashi? I've got a favor to ask of you."

"Alright, come in, I guess. I was just getting ready for bed, but come in and ask me this favor because apparently it can't wait until tomorrow like a sane person."

"That sentence doesn't make much sense, but okay."

"I'm tired, Alyan. Please forgive my grammatical error." Kakashi stated, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You're not forgiven. Anyway." Alyan stepped inside and took a seat on the chair beside the couch. "Since the kids like you and you like the kids, and I have this horrible feeling about the upcoming mission, if something should happen to me, no matter what it is..." Alyan paused, looking uncertain, and messed with his thumbs. "I want you to take over the team."

"What?" Kakashi asked, entirely shocked.

"I don't know why, but I've just got this bad feeling about this mission. I don't really feel safe in my apartment either, right now, and I don't know why. I've never not felt safe in my apartment, that's like, my one safe zone in the entire village " Alyan started getting more frantic. "And I just want to know that my team, no matter how loud and obnoxious and rude they are, are getting the best sensei that they can possibly get. I understand that this would be a hardship on you, and I also understand if you don't want to do it, but please--" Alyan's voice broke, and he dropped the sentence, and started sobbing quietly.

Kakashi sat down on the couch as close to him as he could. He put a hand on Alyan's knee, but otherwise said nothing, one of his hands creeping to his mask and slowly pulling it down.

Alyan took a deep breath before continuing. "I just want to know that my team will be in capable hands--" Kakashi suddenly pulled his mask down all the way and kissed Alyan full on the mouth.

When the kiss ended, Kakashi quietly stated, "Don't cry over this. I love you, Alyan. And I'd like to think nothing will happen. Worst case scenario, you get a few cuts, it's not a dangerous mission like you used to go on. I trust your instincts to protect your team and yourself, so you should be fine. Be prepared, bring anything you think you won't need, and you'll be OK. I'll take your team, but only if something happens to you. I don't think anything will, but if it eases your mind, I'll take them."

Alyan sat in stunned silence for a minute. "You-you kissed me. You love me, oh my god." Alyan pressed his fingers to his lips and turned his gaze to the floor. "I-I think I'm in love with you too, Kakashi." Alyan whispered.

Kakashi patted Alyan on the knee. "Good, now that we've got that out of the way. I'm tired. You can either leave, sleep on the couch, or join me in my bed. Whichever you prefer, I'm going to bed."

Alyan laughed and wiped his eye dry of tears. "I'd like to join you, but I also need to pack my bag." Alyan smiled. "Would you like to help?"

Kakashi laughed quietly, shaking his head. "Sure, why not? I've got a few extra supplies I can lend you."

"Oh, lend me? And what do I have to do to pay you back?" Alyan flirted.

"I think a few kisses should cover it, maybe a snuggle or two." Kakashi shrugged.

"Deal. You go to bed, you know, after you point me in the general direction of your stuff, I'll pack my supplies, and then join you, OK?"

"Alright. Goodnight." Kakashi pointed toward some place on the far wall, turned and left the room.

Alyan sighed, hanging his head. He still didn't have a good feeling, but being at Kakashi's house made him feel reasonably safe. Alyan searched a bit and eventually found Kakashi's ninja supplies.

Alyan carefully sharpened his weapons, slowly dragging the blade across a whet stone to perfect it's edge. Alyan found it quite calming, and easily lost himself in his task.

About an hour later, Alyan was just about finished when he heard a thump from behind him.

Not thinking much about it, considering this was Kakashi's house, Alyan spoke, "I know it's you, Kakashi. You're the only one here besides me, and thumping around behind me isn't going to scare me. It's also in poor taste, all things considered. I mean, I cried earlier about how scared I am about this next mission, and you go and try scaring me further. What an ass, you are." Alyan turned his head slightly to see behind himself.

The last thing he saw was black fabric and red clouds.  
__________

Alyan woke up the next morning to someone shaking his shoulder. As he peeked his eyes open, he slowly registers that it was Kakashi. Knowing that Kakashi was shaking him awake, Alyan sat up and looked around, finally taking in the fact that he wasn't in his own home.

"I thought you were going to join me in bed?" Kakashi said, crossing his arms.

"I thought that was a dream..." Alyan shook his head, trying to organize his thoughts. Alyan smiled up at him."I guess I'll have to stay over again, make up for it later?"

Kakashi laughed quietly, shaking his head. "That you will. As soon as you get home from your mission." Kakashi smoothed his hand over Alyan's cheek, smiling gently when Alyan leaned into the touch. "Are you hungry?"

"Not really, thanks. What time is it?"

Kakashi looked somewhere on the wall, Alyan assumed he was looking at a clock, but then Kakashi was known to act strange sometimes. "About 9 in the morning, why?"

"I'm supposed to meet my team half past 9, and I like to be early. So let me pack up the rest of your spare supplies, and I'll be on my way."

"Alright." Kakashi sighed. "As soon as you get back, come here. I'll have a nice surprise waiting for you." Kakashi winked dramatically.

"Holy shit! You're gonna teach me how to ride the wind?!" Alyan looked up at him, pure excitement written on his face.

"I'll teach you to ride something, but definitely not the wind."

Alyan paused for a while before understanding dawned on him. His cheeks filled with red. "Ohhhh! Ohh, I see. Well, I'll be sure to come back in one piece."

Alyan finished packing up the last of his things, as few as they were, tied his hair up into a ponytail high on his head with one of Kakashi's random blue ribbons he found in the supply case, stood, and walked to the door. As Alyan turned in Kakashi's direction to say goodbye, someone caught his chin, tilted it up, and lips were planted on his once again.

Alyan closed his eyes and let himself enjoy being kissed by the man he might love for a long moment. Soon enough, he felt the hand on his chin move to the back of his neck and another wrap around his waist, pulling him closer. Alyan sighed into the kiss and wrapped his arms around Kakashi's neck.

After a few, too quick seconds, Alyan pulled away. He didn't want to, but he really had to meet his team and go on this mission.

"I love you, Alyan. Be safe, keep those kids safe, and come home to me in one piece." Kakashi stated quietly.

"I will, don't worry your pretty head!" Alyan grinned up at him. "I'm going to have so much to tell you, so be prepared."

"You gonna brag about your team and try and make me jealous?"

"Heck yeah I'm gonna brag about my team and try and make you jealous!" Alyan pulled away from Kakashi and left through the door.

Kakashi sighed. "I hope his bad feeling is just that--a bad feeling."  
__________

Alyan was leaning up against the village gate, rearranging the items in his pouches while waiting for his team to arrive.

"Shit, I don't have a lot of stuff. Next town over I'll have to get more supplies, buy the kids something functional too." Alyan sighed.

3 sets of feet approached Alyan quickly, making him look up. His team was arriving.

When they all stopped in front of him, Alyan greeted them with a hearty, "What's up, midgets. You ready to go? Everyone got the right supplies?"

A loud yes resounded from the team. Alyan saw that his team had travel bags strapped to their backs.

"And you packed extra clothes?"

"Yes, sir!" They shouted in unison.

"Alright. Time to head out!"

Alyan lead his team out of the gates, waving happily to the other ninja in the area. Some waved back, some rolled their eyes at him with a smile on their face, and a couple just glared at him and his team. Alyan stuck his tongue out at them.

"How mature of you, sensei." Sasuke said playfully. Well, as playfully as possible for an Uchiha.

Alyan stuck his tongue out at him, too, making his team laugh.

"Your hair is different today, sensei." Sakura noticed.

"You like it?" Alyan touched his hair. "I spent all of 5 minutes on it this morning."

"I didn't know you even had hair ribbons."

"I don't, I borrowed one of Kakashi's random ribbons that I found in his apartment."

"Why were you in his apartment this morning?" Naruto asked loudly, putting his hands behind his head.

"Maybe because I spent the night at his place?"

"Ohh, how sweet! What did you guys do?" Sakura gushed.

"Well, we talked a bit, he went to bed, I packed my bag, and fell asleep on the couch." Alyan shrugged.

"That's it?" Sakura asked, sounding disappointed.

"Well, we might have kissed."

Sakura shrieked in joy. "When?!" 

"Last night and this morning." Alyan said smiling shyly. "But that's all I'm telling you, you don't need to know any more than that."

It was peacefully quiet for a while, Alyan was enjoying the sunshine, the fresh air, and the melodious sounds of nature all around him and his team.

"You didn't have sex, did you?" Sasuke suddenly, boldly, and bluntly asked.

Alyan's eyes widened, and he gasped slowly in shock. He smacked Sasuke once, twice, three times, Sasuke laughing the whole time, not even trying to block the hits, before Alyan yelled, "You're not allowed to ask those questions! That is a private question that I won't even dignify with an answer!"

It was quiet for a while more, Alyan had taken in a deep breath and let it out slowly before Naruto spoke up. "So you did?"

"Oh, my God! Just shut up, and don't ask me that!" Alyan's face turned a deep shade of red.

"Guys, you really shouldn't ask him that." Sakura stated wisely, looking uncomfortable.

"Exactly, you nostrils shouldn't be asking me that. Not only is it rude, but you shouldn't even know about that, you're only 5 years old, you should think that the opposite gender has cooties or something."

"Nostrils?"

"Yes, nostrils." Alyan pointed to his nose. "Those holes in your nose that let you breathe through it... But none of you are going to comment on the fact that I called you overgrown toddlers, okay. I dig it."

Sakura giggled, Naruto loudly objected, and Sasuke sighed at his antics. Alyan felt pride swell up in his chest at how far his team had come, and because of him!!

The trip to the village was otherwise uneventful.

While in the village, Alyan tried to show them the proper decorum; they were representing Konoha, after all. But it failed 5 steps into the village when Alyan tripped over a cobblestone, pitching him forward and into an elderly man with arms full of groceries. They toppled over, Naruto laughed, Alyan almost died of embarrassment, and when he helped the older gentleman up, Alyan had to pay for the eggs he broke, milk he spilled, and meat he spoiled with dirt.

"Well sensei." Sasuke started.

"Don't even." Alyan warned.

"It would appear-"

"Don't."

"That you-"

"You stop that."

"Have made-"

"I will put you over my knee right here."

"A complete-"

"Sasuke!" Alyan grumbled.

"Idiot of yourself." Sasuke finished, looking so smug.

Alyan was glaring at him. "Remind me to put needles in the bottom of your shoes, would you?"

His team laughed.  
__________

Apparently, today was the day of the Fireworks Festival. Had Alyan known, he'd have brought more money.

His team was everywhere, gazing at everything and playing little games. But they all listened to Alyan when it came to important matters, were kind and friendly when it came to the villagers, and didn't make too much of a fuss over the obviously rigged games.

As they walked past a mask booth, Naruto suddenly gasped. Alyan, Sakura, and Sasuke turned to him, questioning. Naruto smiled widely and pointed to a mask on the rack in the back of the stall. Sakura squealed excitedly when she saw it. Alyan scrunched up his eyebrows, not quite seeing what they saw... Until he did.

It was a replica of an ANBU mask. White face with black eye holes, and red markings here and there. It kind of reminded Alyan of Kakashi's mask.

"You can be an ANBU too, sensei! All you have to do is get that mask!"

Alyan laughed, his eyes were shiny. The things these kids remembered. "Well, not quite." Alyan's laughs died down into chuckles. "There's a lot more to becoming ANBU, but with this, I'll be one step closer. Right?" He winked at his team.

They smiled happily.

"I'll take that white mask, good sir."

The man handed it over, took Alyan's money, gave change, and Alyan strapped the mask to his face securely. Once it was placed, he gently pushed it off to the side so he could see.

Naruto and Sakura were enthused with his new look, Sakura complementing his new mask, and Naruto making the remark that he needed to get a couple of katana to strap onto his back.

"Well, how about this. If I can find a weapons dealer, I'll buy katana for myself, and I'll buy you all some new weapons. How does that sound?"

"Yeah!!" Naruto threw his fist up in the air excitedly. Sakura started chatting excitedly with him, wondering what weapon he would ask for and declared that her choice, a small knife she could tuck somewhere, would be a good choice for the both of them. Alyan smiled at their enthusiasm.

Something caught his eye in the distance. It was a person. And that person looked like... Itachi? But why would he be here? He was a rogue ninja! And who was that with him? A tall figure with blue skin from what Alyan could tell. And they both wore... black cloaks with red clouds. Alyan paled, he had seen that before he fell asleep on the couch last night!

Or had he even fallen asleep at all? What if he was knocked out? But how did they get into Kakashi's apartment? Panic was rising up quickly in Alyan's chest until he started to hyperventilate.

"Sensei?" Sasuke asked, looking far too concerned.

Alyan turned to him. "What's up, Spike?" He tried to calm his erratic breathing.

"Are you okay?" Sakura and Naruto both stopped talking, also turning to look at their sensei.

"Yeah, I'm totally fine. Just thought I saw someone I knew." Or at least knew he would never see again. His heart was still racing with fight-or-flight, but at least his breathing was under control.

They spent the day having fun, buying new weapons (Alyan ended up not buying katana, declaring they were too impractical for his fighting style), eating great food, and basically enjoying themselves. His team behaved themselves well enough that Alyan was confident that they were going to be just fine on an actual mission.

As they walked to a hotel to get a couple of rooms and return to Konoha in the morning, Alyan heard two sets of footsteps walking an even pace with them behind them. He had such a bad feeling about this.

Alyan coughed and got their attention. "So team. There's one more important rule I wanted to share with you all. Rule number 15: When your sensei, or commanding officer, says to run, you do it. Don't even hesitate, don't even argue, even if you think you can handle it, just go. Your sensei or commanding officer is capable enough to take care of it. And if not, that's not your concern; they told you to run, and that's your new objective. Run as fast and as far as you can, using whatever techniques you have at your disposal to confuse your enemies."

"Not that it's not a good lesson, why are telling us this now?" Sasuke asked.

"It seemed like a good time. You might need to know it soon." He discreetly pulled a kunai up to his fingers and glanced over his shoulder; yup, just as Alyan had expected, it was Itachi and his friend. Something told him that they weren't here to catch up on current events. But they made no moves to attack; Alyan still wasn't confident in their safety, but if worse comes to worse, Alyan would die to protect his team. There was no way he'd let these people, no matter what feelings he might still have for one of them, hurt his team.

Later that night

Sakura had her own room, and Naruto and Sasuke had shared another. Alyan had gotten himself a room, to give his underage teammates some privacy, but he was just too anxious about Itachi and his friend following them to the hotel.

At first, he'd stayed up in his room, jumping at just about every sound, checking on his team whenever he heard a door open and shut. Eventually, he decided to just stay outside his door, occasionally nodding to other residents when they looked at him curiously.

Alyan got no sleep that night. He was used to not sleeping much for days on end. Getting through tonight and going home tomorrow would be no problem; he'd been though worse.

He didn't know that exhaustion would eventually be his downfall.

The next morning

He woke his team up bright and early by knocking on their doors.

Sakura came out first, yawning. She was wearing clothes identical to her outfit yesterday, and her hair was a mess.

"You gonna fix your hair?" Alyan asked quizzically. He put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow at her

"Oh, stop, sensei. I'm tired and I forgot my comb."

Alyan sighed and shook his head. "Wow, looks like you weren't prepared at all. Turn around, I'll fix it."

She did. Alyan smoothed her hair out with his fingers, gently undoing the bigger knots.

"You know. Shorter hair is not only easier to keep, but it's also far safer than long hair. I'm not telling you to cut it, just keep that in mind."

"How so?" She asked sleepily.

"Well, with shorter hair I would have to get really close in order to grab it and take you down. Plus I wouldn't have much of a handhold. With long hair," Alyan twisted her hair around his hand and pulled down a bit more roughly than intended, "I would be able to bring you down so much easier. Even without trying I'm able to."

She nodded gently. He could tell what she was thinking, and he made no further comment. He reached into his bag and grabbed a small red comb with a dragon as the bridge. He swept it through her hair carefully and pulled it up high on her head before he pulled the ribbon out of his hair and tied her hair into a top knot at the top of her head.

"There, much better."

She turned around and looked up at him, a question on her mouth. "Sensei, if someone had me by the hair like you did, what do I do?"

"Cut it." He said simply. "Grab a weapon from your pouch, cut it, and get away. Don't even worry about how it looks. Only when you're safe can you even begin to figure out what you're going to do. I've hat to cut my hair a few times, and ended up just cutting the rest off."

She nodded. The boys came out of their room shortly thereafter.

Sasuke gave Sakura a once over. "Your hair looks nice like that."

Naruto agreed hastily. "Yeah, Sakura!"

Sakura blushed in happiness. "Thank you, Sasuke, Naruto. Sensei did it for me."

"Well then, good job sensei!" Naruto declared proudly.

Alyan smiled in response. He bowed low, jokingly, and said "Why thank you, Naruto. I do try my best."

His team chuckled in response.

__________

They spent a couple more hours at the town, Alyan brought his team to another weapons dealer, and he bought a few more traditional weapons for himself and his team.

He bought Sakura a kakute, a ring that has horns on a few of the sides, used for close combat.

Sasuke got a few different types of shuriken, the dealer was also a maker and produced various types of shuriken.

Naruto, of course, choose something completely unreasonable; a ridiculously curvy blade, the blade guard was dragon wings, pommel black leather, and a dragon talon at the base. Alyan rolled his eyes and shook his head. Naruto made the argument of "But it looks so cool!!"

Eventually Alyan gave in. "But on one condition."

"Yes!! What condition?!" Naruto eyes sparkled happily.

"If we get into trouble on our way back to the village, you leave it with me. I wanna fight with it."

"What?! You mean I can't fight with it first??!"

"Nope. The people that may or may not ambush us want me, and whoever I'm with, dead. Which means you all...?"

"Run as fast and as far as we can! Don't hesitate, don't argue, just run." They said in unison.

"Good job."

On their way out of the village, Alyan spotted a vendor that sold bells exclusively. 

Alyan gasped, "Wait! I almost forgot to get a bell for Rocky!" He hurried over to the vendor and perused the selection.

"Who?" Sasuke asked.

Alyan flapped his hand in Sasuke's direction, eyes not leaving the selection of bells. "The guy that sells the herbs whose bell broke, now shush, I'm deciding on a bell. Go play in traffic while I do some business. I'd love for you to watch, but it might get a bit awkward." Alyan looked up to the vendor; his team shrugged to each other and left, but only so far away as they wanted to see what their sensei was going to do. "Which one of these is the loudest?"

The vendor was young, probably younger than Alyan, judging by a lack of facial hair. As he came closer, Alyan noticed that his face was flushed a very pretty pink. Alyan grinned to himself.

"We don't have loud bells, these are more like chimes." He spoke shyly.

"What's the difference? Aren't bells and chimes the same thing?"

"Bells are, well, bells. And chimes are dainty bells." He fiddled with his fingers and looked away.

"So what you're saying is, you only sell dainty bells?"

"Exactly." The vendor nodded, gaze flicking back to Alyan.

"Well then, which ones sound like the laughs of fairies?" Alyan turned his focus back to the "chimes".

"Probably yours." He mumbled, face turning a deep shade of scarlet.

"What was that?" Alyan looked up at him from under his eyelashes. Alyan may or may not have batted them a couple of times, just to watch him turn a deeper shade.

"Nothing, these here-" he directed Alyan to a set of ridiculous looking set of bells that ranged in size from tiny to large. "Sound just like you described. But, um." He hesitated, flicking in his eyes away from Alyan to look at another bell on the other side of the table. "There is a guy, on the other end of the town, that has a bunch of r-regular bells. He's, uh, my brother, and I'm sure he'd be happy to sell one to you."

"Ohh," Alyan groaned dramatically. He had spotted a rather nice medium sized bell in the back of the stand. "I can't do that. You see, I have to be going back to my village like, right now. But I can't help but notice that you have a rather attractive," he bit his lip, and the guy turned a darker shade of red, "uh bell. In the back? I'd be willing to pay anything for that bell."

"Oh, uh." He turned to see the bell. "That ones pretty expensive, that's why it's there."

"How much?" Alyan made it sound like he was asking for a night. He leaned on the table and bit his lip, making sure to train his eyes onto the vendors lips.

The vendor swallowed thickly, and Alyan licked his lips at the sight. "Three, uh." He coughed to clear his throat. "¥3000"

Alyan smiled prettily. "That sounds like an excellent deal, but I'm afraid I've only got ¥2000 on me. I can, um. Pay you back some other way, though?" Alyan trailed a finger down the vendors neck and tugged on his tunic slightly.

"Um!" He squeaked out. "Yes, I think that'd be perfectly acceptable! There's no need to pay me in any other fashion!" He turned quickly and grabbed the bell before putting it back on the table.

Alyan held out his money, the vendor took it, and held the bell out for Alyan to take. Alyan intentionally brushed their hands together before taking the bell. "Thank you, so much. You have no idea how much this means to me. I'll have to be sure to come back and return the favor~." Alyan winked, turned away from the booth and met up with his team a short distance away.

"What the hell was that, sensei!?" Naruto shouted when Alyan was close enough.

"Were you flirting with him?!" Sakura screamed.

Alyan grinned, bright and wide. "Well, he started. I just put on a show."

"But why?" Sasuke asked accusingly.

"Because I know I'm pretty. Besides, I got an awesome deal!"

"You don't flirt with Kakashi like that!" Naruto yelled.

"Because we just got together! Like, last night!" Alyan said, entirely amused with the turn of events.

He briefly glanced away from his team, a smile still settled on his lips, when he saw Itachi and his friend, still just out of complete view. He paled again before turning back to his team quickly.

"Well, we should be getting home. You all have done so well on this fake mission that I trust you enough to do something like this again. Except maybe next time we can go on a real mission?"

Naruto cheered happily, Sakura brought a hand to her mouth and laughed into it, and Sasuke smiled slightly at his sensei.

As they left the town, Alyan threw his guard up, ready to drop the bell and strike at any moment. His team was ahead of him, jabbering away to each other about how much fun they had, gushing about their new weapons, and talking loudly about the game booths. When they turned to ask him what his favorite was, he smiled at them and gave a vague enough answer to appease them, not letting his guard falter in the slightest.

A distance behind them, he heard 2 pair of footsteps, one he knew was Itachi. He carefully reached down to his pouch and grabbed a shuriken and his dragon comb, pretending that all he was doing was coming his slightly messy hair when he was really just transferring the shuriken to his other wrist for easy access. Once his hair was knot free, he put the comb back into his pouch, snapping it closed.

The footsteps were suddenly much closer than Alyan would have liked. He heard what sounded like a wrapped... something dragging on the ground behind a tall someone to his left, almost entirely silent footsteps to his right. They were branching off from each other to try and get the drop in them.

"Guys." Alyan spoke quietly. "Don't turn to me, just keep walking like you are. We're being followed by 2 people. Both of them are incredibly strong. As soon as I say 15, I want you all to run. Don't look back, don't try and fight. Get away. Keep a weapon at hand for emergencies only. Use clones to throw them off; Naruto, if you can, make shadow clones of yourself, Sasuke and Sakura to throw them off course completely. We all know that regular clones don't leave footprints or make shadows. I wish I could have taught you before this, but it didn't come up. You all need to get back to Konoha as quickly as you can. Tell the Hokage immediately--" they were almost on top of them now. "Tell him immediately what happened, where we were at, and as best of a description of them as you can get. If you can't get one, that's fine. Just know that they're wearing black coats with red clouds."

A twig snapped to his left and a wrapped sword suddenly came down out of no where, right between Alyan and Naruto, who was closest to him. Alyan dropped the bell where he was, pulled Naruto's sword off of his back and turned toward the source of the noise, ready to fight.

A faint noise came from behind Alyan, he tilted his head to the side only slightly and a kunai whizzed by, landing in the tree nearly in front of him.

"Well, well, well." A man came out from behind a tree in front of his team. He had blue skin, black eyes, and was wearing that damn black coat. "Look at what we have here, Itachi. 2 demon spawn at once." He grinned maliciously, showing all of his sharp teeth.


	17. This is Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter! Thank you to whoever stuck with me, who found this long after I began, whoever found this after completion, to those of you who starred my work, and everyone who will recommend this fic to their friends (I think you should, once you get to the end)
> 
> I will have 2, maybe 3, alternate endings, as well as a NiS2C Misc. Adventures (involving the demon more (whose name I have already forgotten), getting to know Alyan better, knowing exactly how Kakashi and Alyan became friends, etc...) so it's not like, The End The End.

"Team." Alyan spoke quietly. "Get behind me. Remember what I told you." The three of them shuffled behind him, almost completely paralyzed in fear.

Someone stepped out from Alyan's right.

Itachi.

"Now what good would them getting behind you do, exactly?" He spoke emotionlessly. Then he eyed Alyan's sword. "What a ridiculous blade, you have there."

"Stay away from them." Alyan said coldly.

Itachi smiled coolly. "Of course. All we want is the blond. Hand him over, and you can be on your merry way." He had his sharingan trained on the 4 of them, predicting every move they might possibly make.

"I'd rather die than hand over any of them." Alyan was steadfast in his resolve; there was no way they'd take any of them.

The blue man smiled wider. "That can be arranged." He pulled his sword out of the ground. "My blade has been thirsting for blood. Maybe yours will appease it." He pulled the wrapping partially away from it, revealing a blade with... scales?

Alyan's eyes dart around, looking for a way out for all four of them, but the only option he had was to distract them. Thinking quickly, Alyan yelled, "15!" His team jumped into the trees after a second delay.

Itachi's eyes flicked up to them, tracing their path mentally. Alyan charged at him quickly, and rammed him in the chest with his shoulder, knocking him down, thereby giving his team more time to get away but less time to get away himself.

Kunai flew out of the trees at Itachi, landing at his feet, and Alyan's eyes widened. He leaped into the trees where the weapons came from and found Sasuke there, new shuriken at the ready.

"Sasuke!" Alyan yelled angrily, grabbing his arm. "I told you to run! Don't hesitate, don't fight unless absolutely necessary and run!"

"Yeah, I know. But I've trained so hard for this moment!" He yelled back, just as angrily. "I'm ready to take down my brother, avenge our clan for what he did to them!"

"No. You aren't! Right now, what you need to do is fucking listen to me! They will not hesitate to kill you. You need to get. Out. Of. Here!" Alyan's eyes flickered to the side, and he shoved Sasuke away just as a kunai flew by his head; had Alyan not shoved him at that exact moment, Sasuke would have taken it right to his temple. "Run, you dumbass!!"

Sasuke's eyes widened, he nodded once, and left quickly.

Itachi appeared in Alyan's line of sight, still settled on the ground. "Oh, Alyan. You always ran from any threat, and now you're teaching your students to do the same." He chuckled darkly. "How terrible. And here I thought you had better tactics than that, after all these years."

Alyan saw red. He dropped from the tree, blade in hand and started at his ex-best friend until Itachi's friend stepped in the way, his own scaled blade at the ready.

The blades clashed, and the metal hilt of Alyan's blade started to bend; it was breaking. Suddenly, the piece of the blade that attaches it to the hilt, the tang, split through the hilt entirely and sliced right through Alyan's hand. Blood exploded from the gash, dripping down onto the ground below in rivers. Alyan grit his teeth, baring with the pain; yes, it was a weakness for them to see, but he wouldn't physically show it.

The blue man twisted his blade in such a way that it snapped Alyan's blade at a curve, which flew off into the ground three feet away, and the rest of the blade splintered and shattered, sending sharp pieces of black steel raining down at their feet.

Alyan watched his blade go off in a separate direction with wide eyes, paying no attention to the splinters at his feet; his feet were covered in thick leather, the shards wouldn't ever harm him there.

"What the fuck?!" He let his guard down and turned his back to his attackers. "I paid damn good money for this piece of shit!"

The blue guy raised his blade, about to strike when Itachi called, "Kisame, no. He's about to start a rant; he'll be easily distractable."

"I specifically asked that dealer if I would be alright use this weapon to fight, and he said "Yeah, of course! The blades I make are all good to fight with!"! Well, what the fuck, dealer!? First, the tang splits through the hilt and cuts my fucking hand open, but then the blade itself snaps in half and shatters the rest of the way after a small bend! What the absolute fuck?!" Alyan stomps his foot. "I'm never going to buy another weapon from that jackass again!"

Itachi smirked. "Watch this." He murmured to the blue guy, Kisame. "Where did you buy it, Alyan?"

"Kurugami's Weapons for All Occasions. When I'm through with you two, I'm returning it." Alyan pouted and kicked the blade lightly.

"Oh, no. Alyan. He doesn't have a return policy." Itachi replied in a syrupy sweet voice.

Alyan turned to him, eyes wide. He was silent for a moment. Then a moment more. "What?!" He screeched.

"Yeah, no returns. It's on a sign right as you walk in the door." Itachi nodded, almost knowingly. He signaled to Kisame to move closer to Alyan steadily. If he knew his friend, he'd have his guard down for just long enough to strike.

"What?!"

The conversation continued long enough that Alyan dropped his guard completely and actually stepped closer to Itachi.

Itachi's eyes crinkled slightly. It can't really be that easy. He thought.

Kisame edged closer and closer until he was within swords reach of the pretty, white haired male. He grinned maliciously, all sharp teeth. He raised his sword and swung--

Sakura, Naruto, and now Sasuke were running as hard and as fast as they could. The adrenaline that kept them going for so long had since faded, exhaustion replacing it quickly, but they knew they couldn't stop, even for a second, until they were safe in their own village. They had lost Sasuke for a brief while, back there, but he quickly caught up.

As the gates came into view, Sakura felt warm wetness on her cheeks. She wiped it away, but it stubbornly returned, blurring her vision until she blinked it out of the way.

A silver haired man was leaving the village as they collapsed from the tree; it was Kakashi, he was safe for them.

Sakura's legs couldn't keep her up any longer, and she collapsed heavily in front of Kakashi.

"Are you three alright?" He asked as he took in their sweaty, disheveled selves. "Where's Alyan?"

"Sensei-sensei he-" Naruto could barely speak, his body too focused on breathing.

"You're all alright, take your time. Just breathe."

Sasuke recovered first. "We were attacked." 

"Oh, no." Kakashi mumbled. Hadn't Alyan felt something like this would happen?

"Itachi and some blue skinned guy ambushed us as we were coming back."

"Sensei stayed to fight, letting us get away." Naruto finished.

"Oh, no." Kakashi said louder. "What was the situation like before you left?"

"Sasuke, you were there longest." Sakura choked out.

"Yeah. But he was pissed at me for staying like I did."

"I would have been, too, if I'm being honest." Kakashi crossed his arms on front of his chest. "What did you see, Sasuke?"

"Not much." Sasuke sighed. "I threw a couple of kunai at Itachi, to take his focus off of Alyan. But then Alyan jumped into the trees after me, yelled at me, and pushed me a bit away so I wouldn't take a kunai to the head. After that, I just left."

Kakashi nodded, dropping his arms. "It's alright, kids. Alyan knows what he's doing. I'm confident he'll get away and come back home to us safely. Until then, you three have a job to finish and report what happened to the Hokage."

The team nodded, picked themselves up from their current positions and headed inside the village, Kakashi in tow.  
_____

The sword swung diagonally and tore into Alyan's side. Blood splooshed from the tear, spilling over Kisame's blade and dripping to the dirt below. Alyan was sent skidding, and he anchored his feet further into the ground to prevent him from toppling over.

He pressed his hand over the wound, eyes widened in unguarded shock. How could he have dropped his guard like that?!

He pulled his hand away to find that it was coated in a thick layer of blood, pieces of his own skin, now stained, were seen mingled with the red. Alyan stumbled and staggered, he couldn't believe that someone had torn so viciously into him.

He felt woozy and light headed, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from his bloodied hand. Just before his vision faded out, he heard a terrifying laugh--

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto barged into the Hokage's office.

He looked up at them, entirely surprised. This wasn't behaviour Alyan would tolerate. As soon as he took in their appearance, as well as no Alyan, he sat up straighter. "What happened? Where's Alyan?"

"Hokage, sir. Something terrible happened!" Sakura started.

"We were attacked!" Naruto blurted.

The Hokage's eyes widened. "What?"

"As we were leaving, Itachi and some guy with blue coloured skin attacked us. Alyan stayed behind to fight them off so we could get away, but he didn't catch up with us." Sasuke filled in.

"Well, I suppose you all will have to fill me in on more information, and I'll see what I can do." The Hokage sighed and knitted his fingers together on the desk.  
_____

"Goodness, dearie. You sure have done a number on my vessel, haven't you?" Alyan put his hands on his hips, entirely disregarding his wound, and tilted his head to the side, and kept his vibrant green slitted eyes trained on his prey.

"Who are you?" Itachi asked cautiously. This new being may have looked like Alyan, but it certainly wasn't him.

"Oh, come now, Itachi dearest." Alyan said casually. "I know who you are, and you know who I am. I'm sure I know what you want, but I don't think you know what I want." He swept over to Itachi and touched his face with his own bloody hand. "Now, what I want you to do is let." Alyan traced his hand down Itachi's face before he grabbed Itachi by the neck. "Us. Go." And he shoved Itachi away, using as much force as he possibly could.

Itachi slid across the ground, dirt and grass sticking to his cloak like a magnet.

A purple scaled blade appeared in Alyan's periphery, just above his shoulder.

"I see the fun begins now." Alyan tilted his head to look Kisame in the eye. He smiled menacingly. 

ALYAN TRIES TO FIGHT, DOES PRETTY WELL, ALMOST GETS AWAY, BUT TRIPS OVER THE BELL. KISAMES SWORD IS PLUNGED INTO HIS SHOULDER AND EVERYTHING GOES BLACK

*(And that's that. I can't do fight scenes.)*  
_____

The Hokage called in the ANBU Black Ops Chief for team AlNaSasKura to give a full account of the incident. Posters, both missing and bounty, would be put up and Agents would be sent to find Alyan, as promised by the Chief. All that was left for them to do was go home and carry on as normal until their sensei was returned home safely.

Sakura looked between her two teammates and caught their eye. They all shared a meaningful look before, together, they left for their usual training field.

All they could do, as genin, was wait and hope for the best.  
__________

TORTURE SCENE  
*(Just like, imagine the most graphic scene you can and put it here or comment yours because I'm being absolutely lazy.)*

Alyan was chained by the neck to two wooden posts drilled into the damp, cold stone floor of what appeared to be a cave. Alyan was tired, he had just been *(INSERT YOUR FORM OF TORTURE HERE)* for the past... who knew how long!

His neck ached from the rope that attached his wrists to the collar, and his wrists and hands were nearly numb from how far they had been pulled up.

He just wanted this torture to end, and as it slowed, he knew it would. It was only a matter of time before one of two things happened: he passed out from his exhaustion and his captors killed him, or they took pity on him and killed him; either way, he was going to die here.

"Any last requests, beast?" Itachi asked coldly and calmly, his eyes never leaving Alyan's face.

Alyan looked up at Itachi sadly, now was, apparently, the time of his demise. "There's this guy, in Konoha. He sells herbs everyday in the farmers market."

Itachi looked confused and let him continue.

"In the last town I was in, before you and your friend ambushed us, I bought a bell. His old one broke, bad rope or something. And I promised him that I'd get him a new one, next town I was in." Alyan coughed hard, blood flew out of his mouth, falling to the ground at Itachi feet. Alyan spat out what remained, but blood still coloured his teeth, lips and chin an eerie red. "Can you make sure it gets there? I know that's a lot to ask, knowing your rogue ninja status, but I'd really appreciate it."

Itachi hadn't expected that request. "What stall?"

"Uh, blue tent, I believe. There's a sign on it that says "Herbs". Fourth one from the entrance to the west."

Itachi hummed. "I'll see what I can do."

Kisame grabbed Alyan by the hair and tugged hard. "Any other requests, monster?"

Alyan groaned, pain radiating throughout his entire body. "Just... Just return the bell and take me home in one piece. I promised I'd come home in one piece." His voice broke.

"Oh, we had every intention to. You just might not stay that way." Kisame laughed as if it were the greatest joke he'd ever heard. Itachi simply shook his head.

Alyan hung his head and allowed himself to cry, after all, he didn't have to be strong for his team anymore. The chain rattled with each heave and sob, but didn't sag too far to give him much comfort.

Alyan was unchained from the posts and taken into a large antechamber as soon as he calmed slightly. He looked around, taking in the sights of his place of death. The ground was wet and mossy, the air smelled of mildew, and there were shackles cemented into the floor right in front of an incredibly terrifying face-like statue and between two chained together hands. Eight blueish shadowy forms, probably people, were at the tips of the fingers.

Alyan didn't know why the statue was terrifying, all he knew is that he felt immense fear.

He was lead over to the shackles and was chained up again, one cuff snapped heavily over each wrist, two more strapped to his ankles, and another securely wrapped around his neck in the same collar-like fashion as earlier.

"Ohhh. Kinky. Didn't know you were into this kind of foreplay." Alyan loudly declared, hoping to embarrass Itachi enough to give him a quick death.

No such luck.

Itachi smoothed his fingers through Alyan's hair, bringing his fingers all the way to the back of Alyan's skull before he gripped and tilted Alyan's head back. He looked Alyan right in the eyes and spoke, "Do you really want those to be your last words?"

"Fuck yes." Alyan replied easily, loudly. "I also want to state, for the record, that I encountered Orochimaru once or twice in my travels, and boy is he attractive. I mean, have you seen his face? And his hair, perfect for gripping, if you get what I mean." Alyan waggled his eyebrows and grinned a salacious, if oddly strange-considering it was still stained red-grin.

Itachi rolled his eyes, a small smile gracing his lips from behind his cowl. "Anything else you'd like to admit, now that we're all gathered here?"

"Yeah. A few more things, just give me a second to convey them all." Alyan cleared his throat. "It really smells in here, I suggest cleaning every once in a while. Bleach does wonders, you know. Also, I've never actually done anything with anyone, minus a few kisses, and I had hoped to rectify this before my untimely demise. Though I suppose it isn't my fault. And another thing, isn't there another way for all of you to give me some more dignity?! I mean, I'm dead and dying, literally and actually, right now. Can't I simply attempt an escape that I know I won't be able to make happen?"

One from the top, his face most shadowed, said quietly, "You, Demon Child, don't deserve dignity. You're a disgrace to mankind."

"Yeah? So are you, asshole!" Alyan called back defiantly. "At least I have the decency to apologize to the people I kill! I don't want to kill people, but if it protects my home, I will defend it to my last dying breath!"

"It sounds like you should have died on the battle field. Isn't it sad, how you won't? That you'll die here, chained to the floor, collared like a dog? There is no honor in your death. Just as there was none in your life."

"Fuck you, jackass!" Alyan growled.

Itachi and Kisame took their places at the tips of two fingers, and some sort of ritual started.

Alyan was shaking from absolute fear, why couldn't this end quickly?!

"I'll protect you," a voice from inside his head said quietly. Alyan's vision faded to black, but not before he felt a slight pain coming from the sealing mark on his chest.  
__________

The ritual was done. Alyan was no more, just like it should have been from the beginning. Itachi felt a slight emptiness in his chest when he looked upon his dear friend's corpse.

He shook the feeling off.

Pain had instructed he and Kisame to take the body to Konoha for the villagers to find before he faded from existence, just like the rest of the Akatsuki. He never said to leave it intact, but Kisame figured that they should; it had been one of his last wishes.

Speaking of wishes... Itachi drew his eyes to the entrance of the cave. They had taken the bell with them, for no other reason than to have it.

"Kisame." Itachi spoke quietly. "Take the bell with you." He then detached the chains, wondering vaguely why Alyan had made no noise as he was dying before he decided that he really didn't care, hoisted the body onto his back and left quickly, knowing Kisame would follow.

Once they arrived at the outskirts of the village, Itachi dropped the corpse where he stood and decided to find a place to hang the body.

Kisame found a good place first.

Itachi grabbed the body by its arms, pulled one over his shoulder and half dragged it over to the location.

Itachi tore Alyan's leathers off just enough to expose his back, chest and stomach. He then proceeded to carve the words 

"HE LOVED YOU ALL SO DEARLY  
CONSTANTLY PUTTING  
HIMSELF  
IN HARMS WAY  
AND FOR WHAT?  
LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE  
DONE IN RETURN" 

Into the body. The corpse was tied by the wrists with a rope before the unattached end of said rope was thrown over a tree branch. Kisame pulled on the end of the rope, pulling the corpse up to hang from the ground. It's silver haired head lolled, rolling around on its shoulders before coming to a stop. Kisame expertly tied the rope to the tree itself to hold the body up and allow anyone to see it on full, proud display.

Look at what we, the Akatsuki, have accomplished, Konoha. Itachi thought. Your precious demon beast is dead, and all because you couldn't keep it chained. How the mighty fall.

As they were leaving the body behind, Itachi remembered that he had Kisame bring the bell with him. Daylight was starting to finger through the trees; he'd only have a few minutes to deliver the bell and get out before anyone saw him, minus the ninja already on patrol.

"I'll meet you back at headquarters. There's something I have to do before going back."

"You really should just forget it." Kisame responded gruffly.

"I know. But we did ask him what he wished us to do." Itachi looked over to his companion.

Kisame rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. But if you get caught, this village will pay." He grinned, showing off all of his pointed shark teeth.

"Of course."

As Kisame left, Itachi walked further to the wall surrounding his old home. Sometimes he missed it, though he mostly missed his little brother.

"I wonder how he's doing. He looked well." Itachi turned back to the corpse. "I hope you were treating him well, Demon, and not filling his head with lies." He turned away again and jumped to the top of the wall in one move.

Once on top, he quickly scanned the area, noting ninja in various parts of the city, none of them close to his destination. He ran over the rooftops quickly and silently, not willing to wake any of the residents in his former home. Once he reached the market plaza, he located the stall quickly as it was the only one with a blue top.

He left the bell on one of the counters before turning to leave the same way he came, only to find that there was a bulletin on the board with Alyan's face on it. Itachi approached it and read the article.

Jonin Alyan of Konoha has been  
declared missing.

Information on his disappearance is so far shrouded in mystery.

The Hokage has spoken no word of his plans to find our missing Jonin, but it is assumed he is sending only the best  
ANBU Black Operatives  
to the scene of the crime.

If you have any kind of information, please take it to the Hokage immediately.

Itachi chuckled. Now it was time for this village to find the body of one of their most beloved residents.  
__________

It took a day and a half for Kakashi to find the body.

When he stumbled upon it, he noticed that it was bruised visibly on its face, under its eye and along it's jaw, and cut up on its arms, torso, and legs with a dark spot on the clavicle where a sealing mark should be. There was a deep tear in its shoulder and side, dried blood crusted and flaking off. He couldn't have been more heartbroken to see his love brutalized like this.

"Oh, Alyan. Don't worry, love, I'll have you down from there and into a hospital bed in no time." He spoke gently. "I won't ever leave your side, not even for a minute; I'll keep you warm and safe right beside me for the rest of my life, I swear to you."

As he came closer to the body, Kakashi spoke more quiet words of love and affection. He gently touched it's cheek, trying to pull it up and see its face, when he noticed how cold it was.

"No." He whispered. "Please, no. Please don't be gone." He came closer and quickly checked for a heartbeat however he could; He pressed his ear onto the chest and listened hard, closed his eyes and held his breath, trying to hear a heartbeat.

Nothing.

He couldn't hear anything, no raspy breath, no slow heartbeat, nothing.

Kakashi stepped back and pressed his hand hard to his mouth. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the bloodied, beaten corpse-because that's all it was- in front of him. Tears welled in his eyes before spilling over slowly.

His love was dead.

Alyan died. And Kakashi couldn't have done anything-no-didn't do anything. Alyan went off on a mission that he'd had a bad feeling about, and Kakashi snubbed his concern. Kakashi usually tailed Alyan on every mission, no matter how small and insignificant, just in case. And this is what happened when he didn't, just the one time.

Thoughts swirled in Kakashi's head, how he could have helped him, why he didn't leave the village immediately after Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke returned without him, Sakura crying about how their sensei was in trouble and needed help.

Then his thoughts turned to the Hokage; the kids said that he'd send out a search party--why hadn't he sent out a search party? Did he not want Alyan found?... Did he really hate him as much as Alyan had said?

Kakashi eventually fell to his knees, his hand falling away from his mouth to clatter at his side. Kakashi openly sobbed; his heart was shattered. He just wanted to follow him to the grave, knowing that yes, the pain would fade over the years, but he'd always feel empty.

And then he remembered his promise to Alyan. He had a team to take care of, now... If they'd have him.

He stood on shaky legs, walked over to the body, took a kunai out of his own pouch, vaguely noticing that Alyan's corpse didn't have a weapons pouch on it, and cut the rope tying the body to the tree.

"Come on, Alyan. Let's get you home."

__________  
__________

The worst part, Kakashi thought, is that Alyan didn't even get a Hero's funeral. No one will mourn him, hardly anyone will care that he's gone.

Sakura had been a wreck for four days. She had tear stains on her cheeks whenever anyone caught a glimpse of her, that is, whenever she'd leave the house.

Naruto had tried his hardest to put on a brave face for her as the two of them regrouped one afternoon, but his eyes were just so sad.

Up until recently, Sasuke barely left his house, unless it was to get any necessary supply he might need, but he didn't speak to anyone.

And Kakashi? Well... He tried to not let it effect him, but as he walked by Alyan's apartment or remembered his smiling face, tears escaped, unbidden.

Now, Kakashi stood in front of Alyan's unmarked grave with flowers in hand, on the very far side of the graveyard where no one would bother to look. The only reason why he knew this was Alyan's grave was that the dirt was freshly dug. He hadn't gotten a formal funeral.

Kakashi set the flowers on top of the grave, kissed the blank headstone softly, whispered a small, three word sentence, and left until that evening.

He had a team to coach, and he was already late as it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again, everyone, for reading! I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this part as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please comment your favorite part and send me some love and happiness!
> 
> I'm just such an asshole, aren't I?
> 
> Yes. I am, in fact, laughing. I know someone out there is crying, and I'm sitting here giggling like a madman.


	18. Hello, all!

It's your favorite asshole of an author!

I decided to put up a post where you all get to decide what you'd like to read from this fanfics universe (fanfic of a fanfic... fanfic-ception) entitled "Something in English" because I suck at naming things.

No idea what I'm talking about? Here's an example:

Example: you'd like to read about team AlNaSasKura's first mission.

Comment that on Something in English, I'll get to it, and we are all joyous!

Another example: Alyan's childhood (if you like Feelsfics) with or without Itachi.

Unless you have this absolutely goddamn adorable happy ending for Alyan, all happy endings regarding him will be ignored. He's already getting 2 happy endings, he doesn't need more.... #spoilers

(Also, I'm really bad at writing hetero, but I will try my goddamn best!!)

❤❤GimmeDatElephant


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